That year, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās led the people in the pilgrimage, acting on ʿAlī’s instruction.
When Dhū al-Ḥijjah had ended and Muḥarram began, the people called for a halt to the fighting in the hope that Allah might bring about a reconciliation that would spare their blood. What followed we shall recount, if Allah Most High wills.
[Then the year 37 AH began.]
The year opened with the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him), and Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān (may Allah be pleased with him) still encamped with their armies at a place called Ṣiffīn, near the Euphrates to the east of Syria. Throughout the whole month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah they had fought every day, and on some days even twice; battles were waged whose full account would be lengthy.
When Muḥarram arrived, the two sides drew apart, hoping that a truce and armistice might be concluded that would lead to peace among the Muslims and the preservation of life.
Ibn Jarīr (1) reports—through (Hishām from) Abū Mikhnaf—that Saʿd Abū al-Mujāhid (2) al-Ṭāʾī narrated from Muḥill ibn Khalīfah that ʿAlī dispatched ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, Yazīd ibn Qays al-Arḥabī, Shabath ibn Ribʿī, and Ziyād ibn Khaṣafah to Muʿāwiyah. When they entered upon him—ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ sitting at his side—
ʿAdī, after praising and extolling Allah, said:
To proceed, O Muʿāwiyah: we have come to invite you to a matter by which Allah may unite our word and our ummah (3), by which blood will be spared (4), the roads made secure (5), and relations set right. Your cousin is the leader of the Muslims, the foremost of them in precedence and the best of them in legacy within Islam. The people have already gathered around him, and Allah has guided them to what they have chosen. No one remains in opposition save you and those of your followers who are with you. So desist, Muʿāwiyah, lest Allah bring upon you and your supporters the like of what befell the people on the Day of the Camel.
Muʿāwiyah replied:
It seems you have come only to threaten (6) rather than to reconcile. Far from it, by Allah (7), O ʿAdī! No, by Allah, I am the son of Ḥarb, and no rattling (8) of a water-skin (9) will unnerve me. By Allah, you were among those who incited the people against Ibn ʿAffān, and you are among his killers.