—may lure you away from your position. Were you insignificant in my sight, or were I to belittle the right you hold, I would never have honored you with this warning.”
Hujr replied, “I understand,” and departed.
His partisans—the Shiʿah—then came to him and asked, “What did he say to you?” He told them, and they remarked, “That was no sincere advice.”
Hujr stayed on, though with some misgivings, while the Shiʿah continued to visit him, saying, “You are our elder, the one most entitled to speak out.” Whenever he went to the mosque, they would escort him.
Ziyād’s deputy in Kūfa, ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth—Ziyād himself being in Baṣrah—sent word to Hujr: “What is this crowd about you?”
Hujr said to the messenger, “Do you disapprove of what you yourselves are involved in? Away with you—step back; there is more room for you behind.”
ʿAmr wrote to Ziyād: “If you have any business with him in Kūfa, act quickly.”
Ziyād hastened and dispatched to Hujr ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and Khālid ibn ʿUrfaṭah, so that they might excuse themselves to him and persuade him to curb his tongue. He would not answer them; instead he kept saying, “Boy, feed the she-camel!”
ʿAdī exclaimed, “Are you mad? I speak to you of grave matters and you say this?” Then he said to his companions, “I never thought weakness had reduced him to what I now see.”
They rose and informed Ziyād—relating some things and withholding others, putting the best face on the affair, and pleading with him to treat Hujr gently. Ziyād answered, “Then I would not be a son of Abū Sufyān.”
He sent the police and the Bukhāriyyah guards against him. Hujr and those with him fought, but his followers scattered. He was taken, together with his companions, and brought before Ziyād, who said, “Woe to you! What is the matter with you?”
Hujr replied, “I am still bound by my pledge to Muʿāwiyah.”
Ziyād assembled seventy men and said, “Write down your testimonies against Hujr and his companions.” He then sent those witnesses to Muʿāwiyah, forwarding Hujr and his followers as well.
When the news reached ʿĀʾishah, she dispatched ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām to Muʿāwiyah, asking that he set them free.
Muʿāwiyah said, “I do not care to see them. Bring me Ziyād’s letter.” It was read aloud, and the witnesses were presented.
Muʿāwiyah ordered, “Kill them at ʿAdhrāʾ.”
Hujr asked, “What village is this?”
They said, “ʿAdhrāʾ (1).”
He said, “By Allah, I am the very first Muslim at whom its dogs have barked.”