and they were waving fans and placing snow before him while he cried, “Give me water—thirst is killing me!” until his abdomen split open. (1)

Al-Kalbī: a Rāfiḍī, regarded as unreliable.

Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said, “Sixteen men from Husayn’s own household set out with him.”

Ibn Sīrīn reported: “The sky has not wept for anyone after John—peace be upon him—except for Husayn.” (2)

ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah said: My father narrated to us, from my grandfather, from ʿĪsā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Kindī, who said: “After Husayn was killed we remained for seven days; whenever we prayed the ʿAṣr prayer we looked at the sun on the edges of the walls and it appeared like crimson-dyed cloaks, and we saw the stars striking against one another.” (3)

Al-Madāʾinī, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Mudrik, from his grandfather al-Aswad ibn Qays, said: “For six months after Husayn’s death the horizons of the sky were red, looking like blood.”

Hishām ibn Ḥassān, on the authority of Muḥammad, said: “Do you know where this redness on the horizon comes from? It began on the day Husayn was killed.”

Al-Fasawī said: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; he said: Umm Sūq al-ʿAbdiyya told us; she said: Naḍrah al-Azdiyya related to me: “When Husayn was killed, the sky rained water, and by morning everything we had was filled with blood.”

Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān al-Ḍubaʿī said: My maternal aunt narrated to me: “When Husayn was killed, rain fell upon us that looked like blood.”