Thus al-Ṭabarānī records the poem under al-Ḥusayn’s biography in his al-Muʿjam al-kabīr (1). This, however, is puzzling, for the well-known view is that the verses were composed by al-Farazdaq about ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, not about his father—and this is the more plausible position. Al-Farazdaq only met al-Ḥusayn when the latter was heading for the pilgrimage while al-Farazdaq was coming in, and al-Ḥusayn was then on his way to Iraq. Al-Ḥusayn asked al-Farazdaq about the people, and he gave him the report related earlier; a few days after they parted al-Ḥusayn was killed, so when would al-Farazdaq have seen him circumambulating the House? Allah knows best.

Hishām narrated, from ʿAwāna, that:

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād said to ʿUmar ibn Saʿd, “Where is the letter I wrote to you concerning the killing of al-Ḥusayn?”

He replied, “I carried out your order and the letter was lost.”

Ibn Ziyād said, “You must bring it.”

He answered, “It is lost.”

Ibn Ziyād insisted, “By Allah, you will bring it!”

He said, “By Allah, it was left to be read out to the old women of Quraysh so that I might present my excuse to them in Madinah. By Allah, I gave you such sincere advice concerning al-Ḥusayn that, had I offered it to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, I would have fulfilled his due.”

ʿUthmān ibn Ziyād—ʿUbayd Allah’s brother—remarked, “ʿUmar is truthful, by Allah. By Allah, I would wish that not a single man of the Banū Ziyād were left without a nose-ring (2) until the Day of Resurrection—and that al-Ḥusayn had not been killed.”

By Allah, ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād did not censure him for that (3).

Section: A selection of poems transmitted from him

Among them is what Abū Bakr ibn Kāmil recited on the authority of ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibrāhīm, who said it is by al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib:

Do without created beings by relying on the Creator,
You will outstrip both the false and the true.
Seek provision from the All-Merciful out of His bounty,
For there is no provider but Allah for you.
Whoever imagines that people can enrich him
Has placed no trust in the All-Merciful’s due.
And he who deems his wealth the work of his own hand—
From a perilous height his sandals will slip, too. (4)

Al-Aʿmash related that al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī said:

Whenever a man of wealth is granted more,
His worry and distraction only soar.
We know you well, O life-disturbing abode,
House of every mortal, dwelling of woe.
No seeker of renunciation tastes its purity
While the burden of dependants bends him low. (5)