A Hair from the Dough

Quraysh's poets used their lineage to insult the Muslims, so the Prophet ﷺ asked Hassan to answer them, saying that Jibril was with him. Before replying, Hassan asked to be taught Quraysh's genealogies, because he did not want to insult the Prophet ﷺ's own family by mistake, since the Prophet ﷺ was also of Quraysh.

The Prophet ﷺ sent him to Abu Bakr, the best-informed of the Arabs in lineages, and Abu Bakr gave him the information. Hassan came back and said to the Prophet ﷺ that he would pull him out of Quraysh like a hair from dough, leaving the Prophet ﷺ's family untouched.

'A'ishah heard him recite and said that she had heard the Prophet ﷺ say that Hassan's verses were harder on them than the shooting of arrows. The Prophet ﷺ's choice of defender shows that his answer was not meant to be cruel, but to restore the Muslims' dignity.

01Why it matters

Even when defending the faith, one must be precise, avoid collateral harm and learn before speaking.

02Reflection

Do you prepare to answer an attack as carefully as Hassan did, or do you simply react?

03Sources

Sahih al-Bukhari 3213 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
Sahih al-Bukhari 3531 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
Sahih Muslim 2490 Sahih · in the two Sahihs

What the hadith grades mean

Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.

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