Another narrator transmitted the report and added: “If I remain alive, I may either execute him or pardon him; but if I die, then kill him as I was killed, and do not exceed the limits, for Allah does not love the transgressors.”
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: Ibn Muljam met Shabīb ibn Bijrah al-Ashjaʿī and told him of his resolve to kill ʿAlī; Shabīb agreed and the two of them sat opposite the doorway from which ʿAlī would come out.
Al-Ḥasan related: “I visited him before dawn and sat with him. He said, ‘While I was sitting, drowsiness overcame me and the Prophet ﷺ appeared before me,’ and he recounted the dream already mentioned. He then went out while I followed behind him, with Ibn al-Nabbāḥ in front of him. When he stepped through the door he called, ‘People, the prayer, the prayer!’—as he did every day—carrying in his hand the staff with which he used to rouse the sleepers. The two men confronted him: Ibn Muljam struck him on the crown of his head, while Shabīb’s sword hit the archway. The people heard ʿAlī saying, ‘Do not let the man escape!’
“The crowd surged at the pair from every side. Shabīb fled, but ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was seized; his sword had been coated with poison.
“ʿAlī lingered through Friday and Saturday and died on the night before Sunday, with eleven nights remaining of Ramaḍān.”
After he was buried they brought Ibn Muljam forward. The people assembled and came with pitch and bundles of reed mats. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, al-Ḥusayn, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib said, “Allow us to take full vengeance on him.” ʿAbd Allāh cut off his hands and feet, yet he neither winced nor spoke. He then branded his eyes, and still he did not flinch, saying only, “You are putting kohl on your uncle’s eyes.” He went on reciting, “Recite in the name of your Lord who created …” (Q 96:1) until he completed the surah, while his eyes were streaming with tears. Then they ordered that his tongue be cut out; at this he showed alarm, and someone asked him why.
He answered, “That is not fear; I simply dislike remaining in this world even for a brief moment in which I cannot remember Allah.” They cut out his tongue, and then burned him inside a wicker cage.
He was dark-skinned, handsome of face, with a gap between his front teeth, and his hair reached the lobe