Your commendation outshines the deeds of an entire host,
and your own actions, O son of the Hāshimī woman, are worthier still. (1)

Juwayriyah ibn Asmāʾ said: Al-Zubayr sold one of his houses for six-hundred thousand. Someone remarked, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, you have been short-changed.” He replied, “Not at all; it is in the path of Allah.”

Al-Layth reported from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah that when ʿUmar was killed, al-Zubayr erased his own name from the dīwān (the state register of stipends); and when ʿUthmān was killed, his son ʿAbd Allāh erased his name from the dīwān as well. (2)

Aḥmad records in the Musnad: “Abū Saʿīd, the client of Banū Hāshim, narrated to us; Shaddād ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Ghaylān ibn Jarīr narrated to us, from Muṭarrif. I said to al-Zubayr, ‘What has brought you here? You let the Caliph be exposed until he was slain, and now you have come seeking his blood?’ He replied, ‘In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, we used to recite: “And beware of a trial which will not afflict only the wrongdoers among you” (Al-Anfāl 25). We never thought we were the ones intended until it overtook us where it did.’ (3)

Mubārak ibn Faḍālah reported from al-Ḥasan that a man came to al-Zubayr while he was in Basra and said, “Shall I not kill ʿAlī?” Al-Zubayr asked, “How will you kill him when he is surrounded by troops?” The man replied, “I will join him, remain with you, and then strike him treacherously.” Al-Zubayr said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Faith shackles treachery; a believer does not commit assassination…’”