he could march. Yet each time the people refused to follow him, their opinions scattered, and fear overcame them. So he would loosen the banner and make expiation for his oath. He did that four times. I watched their condition and saw nothing pleasing. On that day I spoke to al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and said, “Will you not speak to him? Where is he going with a people—by Allah, I see no benefit in them at all!” He replied, “Abu al-Qāsim, he is marching for a matter that has come due. I have spoken to him and found him determined to set out.”

Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah continued: When my father saw from them what he saw, he prayed, “O Allah, I have grown weary of them and they of me; I have come to hate them and they hate me. So replace them for me with people better than they, and replace me for them with someone worse than I.”

Year 40 AH

In this year Muʿāwiyah sent Busr ibn Abī Artāt al-Qurashī al-ʿĀmirī to Yemen at the head of troops. ʿAlī’s governor there, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, withdrew, and when the news reached ʿAlī he dispatched Jāriyah ibn Qudāmah al-Saʿdī toward Yemen. Busr seized two young sons of ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, slaughtered them with a knife, and fled. ʿUbayd Allah then returned to Yemen.

Ibn Saʿd reports: They said that three Kharijites volunteered—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muljam al-Murādī, al-Burk ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Tamīmī, and ʿAmr ibn Bukayr al-Tamīmī. They gathered in Mecca and bound themselves by covenant to kill these three: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him), Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, so that the servants of Allah might be rid of them. Ibn Muljam said, “I will take care of ʿAlī,” al-Burk said, “I am for Muʿāwiyah,” and the third said, “I will suffice you concerning ʿAmr.” They pledged not to draw back and agreed that it would be done on the night of the seventeenth of Ramaḍān. Each man then set out for the city where his target was, and Ibn Muljam reached Kūfah and gathered