my grandfather. By my life, there is no one who believes in Allah and the Last Day who thinks that any of us can be the equal or the peer of the Messenger of Allah. Rather, he was led astray only because he lacked understanding; he had never read: “Say: O Allah, Master of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You strip sovereignty from whom You will…” (Qur’an 3:26), nor His words: “Allah bestows His kingdom upon whom He wills” (2:247).

When the women were ushered in to Yazid, Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn—who was older than Sukaynah—said, “O Yazid, are the daughters of the Messenger of Allah being paraded as captives?” Yazid replied, “O daughter of my brother, it was precisely this that I hated to see.” She said, “By Allah, they have not left us even an ear-ring.” (1) He answered, “Daughter of my brother, what has come to you is greater than what has been taken from you.” He then lodged them in his own home and sent to each of the women asking, “What has been taken from you?” There was not a single woman—whatever she claimed—except that he gave her twice as much.

Hishām relates from Abū Mikhnaf, who narrated from Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī, from ʿAbd Allāh al-Thumālī, from al-Qāsim ibn Bukhayt (2): When the Kufan delegation arrived with al-Ḥusayn’s head, they entered the mosque of Damascus. Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam asked them, “What did you do?” They said, “Eighteen of their men remained; by Allah, we finished the last of them—here are the heads and the captives.” Marwān leapt up and left.

His brother Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥakam came to them and asked, “What did you do?” They gave him the same reply. He said, “You will be barred from Muhammad ﷺ on the Day of Resurrection; I will never join you in any matter again.” Then he rose and departed.

He continued: When the people of Madinah heard of al-Ḥusayn’s killing, the women of Banū Hāshim wept for him and bewailed him. (3)

It is also reported that Yazid consulted those around him about what should be done with them. Some men—may Allah disfigure them—said, “O Commander of the Believers, do not leave a single whelp of a vicious dog alive; kill ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn so that no descendant of al-Ḥusayn remains.” Yazid stayed silent. Then al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashir said, “O Commander of the Believers, treat them as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would have treated them had he seen them in this condition.” Yazid’s heart softened toward them; he sent them to the baths, provided them with clothing, stipends and food, and lodged them in his own residence.

This refutes the claim of the Rāfiḍites that they were carried naked on the bare backs of camels—so much so that one of them falsely alleged that the humps of Bactrian camels first sprouted on that day to cover their nakedness, front and back.

Later Ibn Ziyād wrote to ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd, the governor of the Two Sanctuaries, congratulating him on al-Ḥusayn’s death. ʿAmr ordered a herald to proclaim the news. When the women of Banū Hāshim heard, their voices rose in weeping and lamentation, and ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd kept saying, “This is in retaliation for the weeping of the women of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.”

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr said: I entered upon ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād, and al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAli’s head was before him on a shield