Ḥujr and his companions—she said to him:
“Where has your forbearance gone, Muʿāwiyah, that you put Ḥujr and his comrades to death?”

He answered:
“I lost it when there was no longer among my people anyone like you, O mother.”

Then he asked her:
“So how have I behaved toward you, dear mother?”

She replied:
“You are indeed dutiful toward me.”

He said:
“That is enough for me before Allah, and tomorrow I and Ḥujr shall stand before Allah—exalted is He.”

In another version he said to her, “It was those who gave testimony against him who killed him.”

Ibn Jarīr related (1) that when death overtook Muʿāwiyah, his soul rattling in his throat, he kept repeating, “My reckoning with you, O Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī, will indeed be long.” He said it three times, and Allah knows best.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said in al-Ṭabaqāt (2): Some scholars state that Ḥujr, together with his brother Hāniʾ ibn ʿAdī, came as part of a delegation to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He later became one of the companions of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. When Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān was appointed governor over Kūfah, he summoned Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī and said to him:
“You know that I recognize you, and you and I once shared—as you well know—love for ʿAlī; but matters have changed. I adjure you by Allah: do not let so much as a single drop of your blood reach me, for I would be compelled to shed it all. Guard your tongue, stay within your house, this couch of mine is yours to sit upon, and whatever needs you have with me will be met. Spare me from yourself, for I know your impetuous nature. I beseech you by Allah regarding your own life, and beware of this safalah (rabble) (3), these foolish folk, lest they lure you away from your resolve …”

Ḥujr replied, “You have advised and forbidden,” and then returned home.

The shīʿah (partisans) came to him and said, “What did he say to you?”

He answered, “He said such-and-such.” [They said, “He did not give you sincere counsel.”] (5)

Ziyād then set out for Baṣrah, while the shīʿah continued to visit Ḥujr, saying to him, “You are our elder and the one whose opinion we follow.” Whenever he entered the mosque they walked with him. ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth—Ziyād’s deputy in Kūfah—sent word to him:
“What is this gathering, when you have already given the governor the pledge you know of?”

He said to the messenger:
“They are denouncing what you people are doing; turn back—there is more room for you behind.”

ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth wrote to Ziyād: “If you have any concern for Kūfah, then come quickly.” So Ziyād hastened his journey to Kūfah. When he arrived, he sent to Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī: ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bajalī, Khālid ibn ʿUrfuta, and a group of Kūfah’s notables, to dissuade him from this gathering. They came and spoke to him, but he gave them no answer; instead he kept saying:
“Boy, feed the colt!”—for a camel-colt was tethered in the courtyard.

ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim said to him:
“Are you mad? We address you, and you say, ‘Boy, feed the colt’?”

Then ʿAdī said to his companions:
“I never imagined that this unfortunate man had been reduced to such weakness as I now see.”

They rose and reported part of the matter to Ziyād, concealing the rest. They portrayed Ḥujr’s case in a favourable light and asked him to treat him gently, but he refused; rather