The narrator said: The army mounted, while Husayn was still seated. When he saw them approaching he said to his brother al-‘Abbas, “Go and meet them; ask what they want.”
Al-‘Abbas questioned them and they replied, “A letter has reached us from the governor ordering us either to give you the option of submitting to his authority or to engage you in battle.”
Husayn said, “Withdraw from us this evening so that we may reflect overnight.”
So they turned back, and Husayn gathered his followers on the night of ‘Ashura’. After praising Allah he said, “I do not think these people intend anything tomorrow except to fight you. I have granted every one of you permission; you are free of any obligation to me. Night has enveloped you—so whoever has the strength, let him take one of the men of my household and slip away in the darkness. They are only after me; once they see me, they will be diverted from seeking you.”
His kinsmen replied, “May Allah not keep us alive after you; by Allah, we will never leave you.”
His other companions said the same. (1)
Al-Thawri reports—through Abu al-Jahhaf, from his father—that a man said to Husayn, “I am in debt.” Husayn replied, “No one burdened with debt is to fight alongside me.” (2)
The narrative then returns to the main account:
When dawn broke, Husayn prayed, “O Allah, You are my trust in every calamity, my hope in every hardship. You are the One in whom I confide for whatever has befallen me. You are the Guardian of every blessing and the Patron of every good.”
He then said to ʿUmar and his troops, “Do not be hasty! By Allah, I did not come to you until letters from men like yourselves reached me saying that the sunnah had been abolished, hypocrisy had flourished, and the prescribed penalties had been suspended. They urged: ‘Come forward—perhaps Allah will revive the ummah through you.’
“So I came; yet if you now dislike that, I shall turn back. Return to your own conscience: is it right for you to kill me, is my blood lawful to you? Am I not the grandson of your Prophet’s daughter, the son of his cousin’s son? Are not Hamzah, al-‘Abbas, and Jaʿfar my uncles? Has the statement not reached you…"