may your mother be bereaved of you, if ever you should overcome another like him (1)
from among those who still set out at dawn and return at dusk.
How many a deadly surge he rode through, never driven back (2)
by your pursuit, O son of the desert fungus (3) that sprouts on the open plain! (4)
By Allah—my Lord—if you have slain a Muslim deliberately (5)
then the penalty for wilful murder shall surely befall you. (6)

When ʿAmr (ibn Jurmuz) killed him, he severed his head and carried it to ʿAlī, imagining that this would win him favor. He asked for permission to enter, but ʿAlī said, “Do not let him in; give him the tidings of Hellfire.” In another report ʿAlī said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Give the murderer of the son of Ṣafiyyah the tidings of Hellfire.’” (7)

Ibn Jurmuz then entered holding al-Zubayr’s sword, whereupon ʿAlī remarked, “This sword has so often lifted distress from the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” It is said that when ʿAmr ibn Jurmuz heard those words he took his own life; others relate that he lived on until Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr assumed authority over Iraq, at which point he went into hiding. Someone said to Muṣʿab, “ʿAmr ibn Jurmuz is here in concealment; do you wish to seize him?” He replied, “Tell him to come out; he is safe. By Allah, I would never exact retribution (8) for al-Zubayr through him, for he is too insignificant (9) for me to place him on a par with al-Zubayr.”

Al-Zubayr had amassed abundant wealth and gave extremely generous charity. On the Day of the Camel he appointed his son ʿAbd Allah as executor. When he was killed, they found that he owed debts totaling two million two hundred thousand, which were paid on his behalf. Thereafter they set aside one-third of his property as he had stipulated in his will, and then divided the remainder. Each of his four wives (10) received, from one-quarter of one-eighth, one million two hundred thousand dirhams. Thus the (total) distributed among the heirs amounted to thirty-eight million four hundred thousand. The third specified in the will came to nineteen million two hundred thousand, making a grand total of fifty-seven million six hundred thousand. The debt that had been settled beforehand was two million two hundred thousand (11). On this basis, the entirety of what he left behind came to