—in the path of Allah.

They were then brought forward in shackles (1); each man was handed over to another, and that man killed him.

Hujr said, “My people, let me pray two rakʿahs.”

They left him to it. He performed ablution, prayed two units, and lengthened them. Someone said to him, “You prolonged it—are you afraid?”

He replied, “I have never prayed a lighter prayer; and if I were afraid, I have already seen a bared sword, an unfurled shroud, and a grave that has been dug.”

Their clans had come to them with the shrouds and had dug the graves for them (2). Some say it was Muʿāwiyah himself who arranged that.

Hujr said, “O Allah, we seek Your aid against our own community, for the people of Iraq bore witness against us, while the people of Syria have killed us.” (3)

He was told, “Stretch out your neck.”

He answered, “That is blood in which I will never assist.”

It is also said that Muʿāwiyah sent Hudbah ibn Fayyāḍ, who was one-eyed, and he killed them. A man among them from Khathʿam looked at him and said:

“If the birds speak true, half of us will be killed and half will be spared.”

When seven had been executed, Muʿāwiyah sent a messenger ordering that the rest be released; seven had been killed and six survived, for they were thirteen in all.

Ibn Hishām then arrived with ʿĀʾishah’s letter, but they had already been slain. He said, “Commander of the Believers, where has the forbearance of Abū Sufyān gone?”

Muʿāwiyah replied, “It disappeared because someone like you was not with me”—meaning that he regretted the deed.

Hind al-Anṣāriyyah, who was of the Shiʿah, recited when Hujr was sent to Muʿāwiyah:

Rise high, O radiant moon, rise high; can you see Hujr on his way?
He travels to Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥarb, to be killed, so the informer says.
The tyrants waxed arrogant after Hujr, and now Khawarnaq and Sadīr delight them (4).