Abu ʿUthmān al-Nahdī said:
Al-Ḥusayn sent, by way of a servant of his named Salmān, a letter to the notables of Basra. In it he wrote:
To proceed: Allah chose Muhammad above all His creation, honoured him with prophethood, and selected him for His message. He then took him back to Himself after he had sincerely advised His servants and conveyed what he had been sent with. We are his family, his confidants, his executors, and the people most entitled to him and to his station among mankind. Yet our own people appropriated that right; we accepted this, for we loathed division and preferred safety. All the while we knew that we were more deserving of that right—now due to us—than those who assumed it. Nevertheless, they acted well, set matters aright, and sought the truth. May Allah have mercy on them and forgive us and them.
I have now sent you this letter inviting you to the Book of Allah and the sunnah of His Prophet. The sunnah has been allowed to die, while innovation has been revived. Listen, therefore, to my words and obey my command; if you do so, I shall guide you to the path of right guidance. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah.
I have reservations about the soundness of this attribution to al-Ḥusayn; it appears to have been embellished with additional wording by some Shīʿī transmitters.
He said:
Every one of the notables who read the letter kept it secret except al-Mundhir ibn al-Jārūd. Thinking it a ruse from Ibn Ziyād, he brought it to him. Ibn Ziyād sent for the courier who had brought the letter from al-Ḥusayn, struck off his head, and then ascended the pulpit.
He praised Allah and extolled Him, then said:
To proceed: By Allah, I am not a man with whom the unruly are yoked, nor does the rattling of reins alarm me (1). I am a scourge to whoever opposes me and an arrow against whoever fights me; I repay in full whoever targets me. O people of Basra! The Commander of the Faithful has appointed me over Kūfa, and this very morning I am setting out for it. I have left ʿUthmān ibn Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān as my deputy over you. Beware, therefore, of dissension and rumour-mongering. By the One besides whom there is no deity, if word reaches me that any one of you has sown discord, I shall kill him, his tribal chief, and his protector; I shall hold the near accountable for the far until the matter is set straight for me and there remains among you neither dissenter nor rebel. I am Ibn Ziyād—the one who most resembles my father of all who have trodden the earth; no maternal uncle or paternal uncle has imposed his likeness upon me (2).
He then left Basra, accompanied by Muslim ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī, and what befell him has already been related.
Abu Mikhnaf said, reporting from al-Ṣaʿqab ibn Zuhayr, from ʿAwn ibn [Abī] (3) Juḥayfah:
Muslim ibn ʿAqīl set out in Kūfa on Tuesday, eight days having elapsed from Dhu’l-Ḥijjah; it is also said on Wednesday, the ninth of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah (4), the Day of ʿArafah, in the year 60 AH. Al-Ḥusayn had left Mecca heading for Iraq one day earlier.
Al-Ḥusayn departed Medina for Mecca on Sunday, with two nights remaining of Rajab in the year 60 AH, and he entered Mecca on the night of Friday, the third of Shaʿbān. He remained in Mecca for the rest of Shaʿbān, Ramaḍān, Shawwāl, and Dhu’l-Qaʿdah, and he left Mecca on Tuesday, the eighth of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah—the Day of Tarwiyah.