until his pure soul departed—after he had endured a torment that would have made even the hardest stones quake (1).

News-bearers brought word of Ḥabīb ibn Zayd’s death to his mother, Nusaybah al-Māziniyyah. She said nothing beyond:
“For a moment such as this I reared him …
With Allah I reckon my loss …
He pledged allegiance to the Messenger ﷺ on the Night of ʿAqabah while still a boy (2),
and today, as a man, he has kept that pledge …
If Allah grants me reach to Musaylimah, I will have his daughters beating their faces in grief for him …”

The day Nusaybah yearned for did not tarry long, for a herald of Abū Bakr proclaimed in Madinah: “To arms against the lying pretender, Musaylimah!”