of your Lord! (1)
Ibn al-Zubayr then sought Allah’s guidance (istikhārah) for three days; on the fourth morning he came out and began dismantling the corner of the House down to its very foundations. When the workmen reached the base they discovered, within the Ḥijr, a stone formation interlaced like the fingers of a hand. Ibn al-Zubayr summoned fifty men and ordered them to dig, but the moment their pick-axes struck those interlocking stones, Mecca trembled. He therefore left that section as it was and built upon it.
He furnished the Kaʿbah with two doors set at ground level—one for entering and one for exiting. With his own hand he placed the Black Stone, binding it with silver because it had cracked. He expanded the width of the Kaʿbah by ten cubits, anointed its walls with musk, and clothed it in brocade. Then he performed ʿumrah from the Mosque of ʿĀʾishah, circumambulated the House, prayed, made saʿy, and removed the refuse and the bloodstains that had been scattered around the sanctuary. The Kaʿbah had been weakened from top to bottom by the stones of the catapults; the Corner had blackened, and the Black Stone had split from the fires that had raged about it. Ibn al-Zubayr’s motive for rebuilding it was the ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, cited earlier. Allah knows best. (2)
[Then the year 65 AH began]
In that year nearly seventeen thousand men gathered around Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad, all determined to take revenge for al-Ḥusayn against his killers.
Al-Wāqidī relates: When the people set out for al-Nukhaylah they were few, and their small number displeased Sulaymān. He therefore sent Ḥakīm ibn Munqidh, who cried out in Kufah at the top of his voice, “O avengers of al-Ḥusayn!” He continued to call out until he reached the Great Mosque. The people heard him and poured forth to al-Nukhaylah; the notables of Kufah joined them until they numbered about twenty thousand, or even more, in the register of Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad. Yet when he resolved to march, only four thousand remained with him.
Musayyab ibn Najabah said to Sulaymān, “The reluctant will be of no use to you; none will fight at your side save the one whose intention has brought him forth and who has sold his soul to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Do not wait for anyone; proceed with your mission, wage jihad against your enemy, and seek Allah’s help against them.”
Sulaymān then stood before his followers and declared, “People! Whoever has set out solely for Allah’s sake and the reward of the Hereafter is one of us and we are of him; but whoever has come with us for worldly gain is not of us and shall not accompany us.”
Those who stayed with him replied, “It was not for the world that we set out, nor do we seek it.”
Someone asked, “Shall we march against the killers of al-Ḥusayn in Syria when his killers are here among us in Kufah—men such as ʿUmar ibn Saʿd and others?”
Sulaymān answered, “It was Ibn Ziyād who dispatched the army against him and did to him what he did. When we have finished with him, we shall return to his accomplices in Kufah. Had you fought them first—people of your own city—no man among you would fail to confront one who had slain his father, his brother, or a close relative, and mutual hesitation would ensue. Once you have dealt with the debauched Ibn Ziyād, your aim will be achieved.”
They said, “You have spoken the truth.”