He deems the killing of the finest men his due,
While an adviser from the vilest of his nation urges him on.
O would that Ḥujr had met a natural death
And not been butchered like a sacrificial camel.
After Ḥujr the tyrants swelled with greater arrogance,
And took their pleasure in Khawarnaq and Sadir.⦗1⦘
The land beneath them turned to desolation,
As though no rain-laden cloud had ever revived it.
O Ḥujr, pride of the clan of ʿAdī,
Safety and gladness have welcomed you.
I fear for you what destroyed ʿAdiyy,
And a roaring beast that lurks in Damascus.⦗2⦘
If you perish, every chieftain of a people
Must likewise depart this world to his appointed doom.
So may the Lord’s good pleasure rest upon you in death,
And gardens replete with blessings and fair maidens.⦗3⦘
Ibn ʿAsākir has preserved many other elegies for him.
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said:⦗4⦘ Ḥarmalah narrated to us; Ibn Wahb informed us; Ibn Lahīʿah told me, from Abū al-Aswad, who said:
Muʿāwiyah entered upon ʿĀʾishah, and she asked, “What moved you to kill the people of ʿAdhrāʾ—Ḥujr and his companions?”
He replied, “Mother of the Believers, I saw the welfare of the ummah in killing them, and its harm in letting them live.”
She said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah—blessings and peace be upon him—say: ‘There will be slain at ʿAdhrāʾ a people for whom Allah and the inhabitants of heaven are angered.’”
This chain of transmission is weak and broken.
ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubārak also reported it, from Ibn Lahīʿah, from Abū al-Aswad, that ʿĀʾishah said: “I have been informed that seven persons will be killed at ʿAdhrāʾ⦗5⦘ for whom Allah and the dwellers of heaven are angered.”
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān further said: [Ibn Bukayr narrated to me]⦗6⦘ Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to me; al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Razīn al-Ghāfiqī, who said:
I heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib say, “O people of Iraq! Seven men from among you will be slain at ʿAdhrāʾ; their likeness is that of the people of the trench.” He continued: and indeed Ḥujr and his companions were killed.