al-Kanjarūdhī narrated to us; Ibn Ḥamdan narrated to us; Abū Yaʿlā related; Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā al-Suddī narrated; Saʿīd ibn Khuthaym, from al-Walīd ibn Yasār ⦗1⦘ al-Hamdānī, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, the client of Banū Umayyah, who said:

Muʿāwiyah performed the ḥajj accompanied by Muʿāwiyah ibn Hudayj, who was among the most spiteful of people toward ʿAlī. As they passed through Madinah, al-Ḥasan was seated with a group of his companions. A messenger came to Ibn Hudayj and said, “Answer al-Ḥasan’s summons.”

He went to him and offered greetings.

Al-Ḥasan asked, “Are you Muʿāwiyah ibn Hudayj?”

He replied, “Yes.”

Al-Ḥasan said, “Then you are the one who reviles ʿAlī?”

The man grew visibly embarrassed.

Al-Ḥasan continued, “By Allah, if you should reach him at the Basin—and I do not think you will—you will find him with his waist-wrapper tucked up, leg uncovered, driving away from it the banners of the hypocrites the way a she-camel chases off strange camels. Such is the word of the truthful, the one believed: ‘And ruined indeed is the one who fabricates.’ ⦗2⦘”

A similar report was transmitted by Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ from Badr ibn al-Khalīl, from the client of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, who said:

Al-Ḥasan asked me, “Do you know Muʿāwiyah ibn Hudayj?”

I replied, “Yes …,” and he recounted the same incident.

I (the author) say: This man was an Uthmānī. Between the two camps that faced one another at Ṣiffīn there occurred something more serious than abusive words—the sword itself. If anything of this report is authentic, our duty is to abstain from comment and to seek forgiveness for the Companions. We do not approve of what arose between them; we seek refuge in Allah from it, and we maintain our allegiance to the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī.

In the book al-Jamal by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, through the chain of Ibn Luhayʿah, it is related: Abū Qabīl said:

When Ḥujr and his companions were killed, the news reached Muʿāwiyah ibn Hudayj in Ifrīqiyah. He rose among his followers and declared:

“O my brothers, my comrades, my chosen men! Are we to fight on behalf of Quraysh for the sake of kingship, so that once it is secure for them they turn around and kill us? By Allah, if I live to see the affair again with…"