and Abū Dharr—which al-Bayhaqī judged preferable on account of the preceding report from Abū ʿUbaydah—saying: “It would seem that this man was Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, and Allah knows best.”

I say: People’s attitudes toward Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah fall into several groups. One group loves him and declares allegiance to him; these are some of the Syrians, counted among the Nasibis. The Rāfiḍīs, on the other hand, denounce him and attribute to him many things that are not true, and many—indeed most—of them accuse him of outright heresy, though he was not like that. A third group neither loves him nor reviles him, knowing that he was no heretic as the Rāfiḍīs claim, yet mindful of the dreadful calamities and reprehensible, heinous events that occurred in his time. Foremost among these was the killing of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī at Karbalāʾ—though this did not happen with his prior knowledge; perhaps he was neither pleased by it nor distressed by it, despite its being an abomination of the gravest kind—and the Battle of al-Ḥarra, an atrocious affair that befell the Prophet’s City, the details of which we shall recount, Allah willing, when we reach that year in the History.

Foretelling the martyrdom of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī

Aḥādīth have come down concerning al-Ḥusayn’s killing. Imām Aḥmad said:

‘ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Ḥassān narrated to us; ʿUmārah—meaning Ibn Zādhān—narrated to us, from Thābit, from Anas, who said:

The Angel in charge of the rain asked permission to visit the Prophet ﷺ, and he granted it. The Prophet then said to Umm Salamah, “Guard the door for us; let no one come in.” Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī came, darted past, and entered, climbing onto the Prophet’s shoulder. The angel said, “Do you love him?” He replied, “Yes.” The angel said, “Your community will kill him. If you wish, I can show you the place where he will be slain.” He then struck his hand to the earth and showed him red soil. Umm Salamah took that soil and tied it up in a corner of her garment.’

Anas added, ‘We used to hear that he would be killed at Karbalāʾ.’

Al-Bayhaqī recorded the same narration through Bishr ibn Mūsā, from ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, from ʿUmārah, and cited it in full, and he said: ‘Shaybān ibn Farrūkh likewise related it from ʿUmārah.’

This ʿUmārah ibn Zādhān—al-Ṣaydilānī, Abū Salamah al-Baṣrī—has been the subject of differing assessments. Abū Ḥātim said, “His reports are to be written down but not adduced as proof; he is not strong.” Aḥmad declared him weak on one occasion and reliable on another. In any case, this very ḥadīth of his has also reached us through other lines of transmission.