in death, yet how many times you raised it while you were alive.(1)

Abu Harun al-ʿAbdi said: “I once saw Abu Saʿid al-Khudri with his beard completely plucked out. He told me, ‘This is what I suffered at the hands of the wrong-doers from Syria. They took everything in the house. Then another detachment came in; when they found nothing they grew furious, flung me to the ground, and each of them tore out a tuft of my beard.’ ”

Khalifah said: On that day three hundred and six men from Quraysh and the Ansar were killed; he then named them one by one.(2)

Abu Jaʿfar al-Baqir recounted: “None of the Banu ʿAbd al-Muttalib went out to fight; they stayed in their houses. Musrif asked after my father, so he came to him accompanied by the two sons of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah. Musrif welcomed my father warmly, made room for him, and said, ‘The Commander of the Believers has charged me to look after you.’ ”

The engagement took place with three days remaining in Dhu al-Hijjah, in the year 63 AH. Among those killed that day were ʿAbd Allah ibn Zayd ibn ʿAsim—the man who demonstrated the Prophet’s ablution—Maʿqil ibn Sinan, Muhammad ibn Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and several sons of the foremost Companions; a number of others were executed in cold blood.

Malik ibn Anas said: “Seven hundred Quran-bearers were killed on the Day of al-Harrah.”

I remark: After this calamity the people’s hatred for Yazid intensified—on top of what he had done to Husayn and his family, and because of his scant devotion. Abu Bilal Mirdas ibn ʿUdayyah al-Hanzali rose against him, as did Nafiʿ ibn al-Azraq and Towwaf al-Sadusi. Allah did not grant him respite; he perished a little over seventy days later.