They then drew back. Al-Hurr said to him, “I have not been ordered to fight you; I have only been instructed not to leave you until I deliver you to Kūfah, to Ibn Ziyād. If you refuse, then take a route that neither brings you to Kūfah nor sends you back to Madinah. You write to Yazīd, and I—if you wish—will write to Ibn Ziyād. Perhaps Allah will bring about some matter that will spare me the trial of harming you.”

So al-Ḥusayn turned left, away from the road to al-ʿUdhaib (1) and al-Qādisiyyah. Al-Hurr ibn Yazīd kept pace with him, saying, “O Ḥusayn, I remind you of Allah concerning yourself. I testify that if you fight you will certainly be killed, and if you are fought you will perish, as far as I can see.”

Al-Ḥusayn replied, “Do you try to frighten me with death? I say only what the man of al-Aws said to his cousin when he met him on his way to aid the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. His cousin said, ‘Where are you going? You will be killed.’ He answered:

‘I shall press on, for death is no disgrace to a youth
whose aim is just and who strives as a Muslim;
who gives himself in support of the righteous
and leaves rather than live degraded and coerced.’

Another version runs:

‘I shall press on; no shame lies in death for a man
whose purpose is right and who is not found a criminal.
If I die, I shall not regret; if I live, I shall not be blamed;
to live in abjection and subjection—that alone is death enough.’ (2)

When al-Hurr heard this, he moved aside and rode with his men at a distance from him. They reached ʿUdhaib al-Hijānāt (3)—where al-Nuʿmān’s brood-mares used to graze. There they saw four men hurrying from Kūfah on their mounts, urging them on and leading (4) a horse belonging to Nāfiʿ ibn Hilāl, called al-Kāmil. They were heading toward al-Ḥusayn, guided by a man named al-Tirmāḥ ibn ʿAddī, who rode a horse and chanted:

“My she-camel, be not startled by my urging;
stride on before the break of dawn,
bearing the best of riders on the noblest journey,
until you alight by the generous source (5)—
the noble, free, large-hearted man
whom Allah has brought for the finest purpose;
then may He preserve him as long as time endures.”

Al-Hurr wanted to bar them from al-Ḥusayn, but al-Ḥusayn forbade him. When they reached him he said, “Tell me about the people you have left behind.” One of the four, Mujammiʿ ibn ʿAbd Allah al-ʿĀʾiḍī (6), replied, “As for the leading men …”