but he refused; rather he dispatched the shurṭ (police units) and the bukhāriyya⦗1⦘. They seized him and his companions and brought them in. Ziyād said to him, “Woe to you—what are you up to?” He replied, “I remain upon my pledge to Muʿāwiyah.” Ziyād then assembled seventy of Kūfah’s leading men and said, “Write down your testimonies against Ḥujr and his companions.” They did so, after which he sent them to Muʿāwiyah.
When the news reached ʿĀʾishah, she dispatched ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām to Muʿāwiyah, requesting that he release them. By the time he arrived, seven of them had already been killed and the remaining seven set free; Ḥujr was among those executed. He had asked to perform two rakʿahs before they killed him. He lengthened the prayer and then said, “This is the lightest prayer I have ever prayed.”
The envoy of ʿĀʾishah arrived only after the affair had been concluded. Later, when Muʿāwiyah came for the pilgrimage, ʿĀʾishah said to him, “Where did your forbearance go⦗2⦘ when you killed Ḥujr?” He answered, “It vanished when there was no longer among my people anyone like you.”
It is narrated that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith said to Muʿāwiyah, “Did you kill Ḥujr ibn al-Adbar?” Muʿāwiyah replied, “Killing him was dearer to me than having to kill a hundred thousand along with him.”
Ibn Jarīr and others report that Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī and his companions used to speak ill of ʿUthmān, accusing him of injustice, openly faulting the governors, hastening to censure them and taking it to extremes. They aligned themselves with the partisans of ʿAlī and were stringent in religious matters.
It is also related that when he was shackled and being led from Kūfah to Syria, his daughters met him on the road, weeping. He turned toward them, remained silent for a moment, and then said, “It is Allah—living, everlasting, never to die—who feeds you, gives you drink, and clothes you; He will remain for you after I am gone. So fear Allah, worship Him, be patient in seeking His Face, and rely upon Him. I hope from my Lord—exalted is He—for one of two excellent outcomes on this journey: either martyrdom, which is the supreme felicity, or returning to you in well-being. I ask Allah, who has always spared me the burden of providing for you, not to forsake you and to preserve me in regard to you.”
He then went on his way. As he passed by his tribe, they prayed to Allah for his safety. He and his companions were brought to Marj ʿAdhrāʾ, where they were killed and buried facing the qiblah. (May Allah be pleased with them and pardon them.)⦗3⦘
A woman from the pro-ʿAlī faction composed an elegy for Ḥujr—she was Hind bint Zayd ibn Makhramah al-Anṣāriyyah; others say she was Hind, the sister of Ḥujr, and Allah knows best:
Rise high, O shining moon;
Look closely—can you see Ḥujr on the move?
He marches to Muʿāwiyah son of Ḥarb,
For the commander claims he will put him to death.