…people are killed until the Stone of Oil is awash with blood—what will you do?’
I replied, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’
He said, ‘Stay inside your house.’
I asked, ‘What if they force their way in on me?’
He answered, ‘Then go to those to whom you belong.’
I said, ‘Shall I take up arms?’
He said, ‘If you do, you will be counted among them.’
I asked, ‘Then what do you order me to do, O Messenger of Allah?’
He said, ‘If you fear that the flash of the sword will dazzle you, cast a corner of your cloak over your face so that he will bear the burden of your sin and his own.’(1)

Imām Aḥmad also recorded this report in his Musnad, through Marḥūm—namely Marḥūm ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz(2)—on the authority of Abū ʿImrān al-Jawni, giving a fuller version.

I say: The cause of the battle of al-Ḥarrah was that a delegation from Madinah travelled to Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah in Damascus. He honoured them, granted them generous gifts, and presented their leader—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī ʿĀmir—with nearly one hundred thousand. On their return they told their people of Yazīd’s vices: his drinking of wine and the immoral acts that follow, the most serious of which was neglecting the prayer beyond its prescribed time because of drunkenness. The people therefore agreed to depose him, and they did so publicly at the Prophet’s pulpit. When the news reached him he dispatched a detachment headed by a man called Muslim ibn ʿUqbah—whom the early scholars nicknamed Musrif ibn ʿUqbah. Once he entered Madinah he declared it open to his troops for three days, during which he killed so many that scarcely anyone escaped. Some of the early scholars claimed that during those days he killed a thousand virgin youths; Allah knows best.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb related from Imām Mālik that seven hundred memorizers of the Qur’an were killed on the day of al-Ḥarrah—I think he added—and among them were three Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This occurred during the caliphate of Yazīd(3).

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: I heard Saʿīd ibn Kathīr ibn ʿUfayr al-Anṣārī say: Those killed on the day of al-Ḥarrah included ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd al-Māzinī, Maʿqil ibn Sinān al-Ashjaʿī, Muʿādh ibn al-Ḥārith al-Qārī, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī ʿĀmir(4).

Yaʿqūb also said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr related to us from al-Layth, who said: The battle of al-Ḥarrah took place on Wednesday, with three days remaining of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah in the year sixty-three(5).

Musrif ibn ʿUqbah then marched on Mecca intending to kill ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr there, for he had refused to pledge allegiance to Yazīd. While he was on the way, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah died, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr’s authority over the Ḥijāz became firmly established; afterwards he gained control of Iraq…