ʿAbd Allah ibn Muṭīʿ said to him, “May my father and mother be your ransom. Let us continue to enjoy your presence—do not set out! By Allah, if you are killed they will treat us as mere servants and slaves.” (1)

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar and ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah met the two of them as they were returning from ʿumrah and said, “I adjure you by Allah: turn back. Enter into whatever the people enter and wait. If the people later unite around someone, do not separate yourselves; but if they remain divided, you can still pursue what you intend.” (2)

Ibn ʿUmar also said to Ḥusayn, “Do not go out. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was given the choice between this world and the hereafter, and he chose the hereafter. You are a part of him, and you will not obtain this world.” Then he embraced him, wept, and bade him farewell.

Ibn ʿUmar would afterwards say, “We were powerless against his departure. By my life, he had in his father and brother a lesson, and he had witnessed the turmoil and the people’s abandonment of them—so he ought not to have moved.” (3)

Ibn ʿAbbās asked him, “Where are you headed, son of Fāṭimah?”
He replied, “To Iraq, to my supporters.”
Ibn ʿAbbās said, “I dislike seeing you set out like this—to a people who killed your father…,” and he went on speaking.

Abū Saʿīd said to him, “Fear Allah and stay in your house.”
Jābir and Abū Wāqid al-Laythī also advised him, and Ibn al-Musayyib remarked, “Had he not gone out, it would have been better for him.”

It is related that ʿAmrah (4) wrote to him, magnifying the seriousness of what he intended to do, telling him that he was only being driven toward his death, and saying: “ʿĀʾishah told me that she heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him…”