belong to al-Ḥusayn,’ he said. (1) I approached him and saw before me an elderly man reciting the Quran, tears streaming down his cheeks and beard. I asked, “May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O son of the Messenger of Allah! What has brought you to this barren land where no one dwells?” He answered, “These are the letters of the people of Kufah to me, yet I foresee that they will kill me. When they do, they will leave no sanctity of Allah unviolated, and Allah will set over them one who will abase them until they become more humiliated than the ragged edge of a slave-girl’s veil (2).”
ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad also related to us, from al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, who said: Al-Ḥusayn declared, “By Allah, you will assault me just as the Children of Israel violated the Sabbath.” ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad further narrated to us, from Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān al-Ḍubʿī, who said: Al-Ḥusayn said, “By Allah, they will not leave me be until they draw this clot (of blood) from my body. When they do, Allah will unleash upon them one who will debase them until they are more humiliated than the ragged edge of a slave-girl’s veil.” He was slain at Nineveh (3) on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, in the year 61 AH.
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Abū Bakr al-Ḥumaydī narrated to us, Sufyān narrated to us, Shihāb ibn Khirrāsh (4) narrated to us, from a man of his own clan, who said: “I was in the army that Ibn Ziyād dispatched against al-Ḥusayn [they were four thousand men who had originally set out to fight the Daylam, but Ibn Ziyād selected them and diverted them to confront al-Ḥusayn] (5). I met al-Ḥusayn and saw that his head and beard were jet-black. I said to him, ‘Peace be upon you, Abū ʿAbd Allah.’ He replied, ‘And upon you be peace’—his voice had a slight nasal resonance—then added, ‘A plague has lodged among you since last night,’ meaning thieves (6).”
Shihāb said, “I later reported this to Zayd ibn ʿAlī, and it pleased him; he too had that nasal tone.” Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah commented, “It is found among the Husaynids (7).”
Abū Mikhnaf reported, on the authority of Abū Khālid al-Kāhilī: When the cavalry reached al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī at dawn, he raised his hands and prayed, “O Allah, You are my trust in every distress and my hope in every hardship. In every matter that befalls me, You are my refuge and my provision. How many anxieties have there been that made the heart falter, left resourcefulness scant, caused the friend to fail, and made the enemy gloat! I cast them before You and complained of them to You, seeking from You alone what I would seek from no one else; and You relieved them, removed them, and sufficed me concerning them. So You are (8) the Guardian of every blessing, the Bestower of every favor, and the Ultimate of every aspiration (9).”