Ibn Jarīr said (1): Abū Zayd reported from Abū Ghassān Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā—Muṣʿab ibn ʿUthmān related to me, saying:

When the news reached ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr that his brother Muṣʿab had been killed, he rose to address the people and said:

“Praise be to Allah, to Him belong creation and command; He grants dominion to whom He wills and removes dominion from whom He wills; He exalts whom He wills and abases whom He wills. Know that Allah never humiliates the one who has the truth at his side, even if he stands alone, and never will the one whose patron and party is Satan prosper, even if all mankind were with him [ṭurran]—altogether.

Behold, news has come to us from Iraq that has both saddened us and gladdened us: the slaying of Muṣʿab—may Allah have mercy on him (2). What gladdens us is our certainty that his death counts as martyrdom; what saddens us is that the loss of a dear one sears the heart of his loved ones at the moment of calamity, though a person of sound judgment soon regains composure with fine patience and noble consolation. If I have been afflicted by the loss of Muṣʿab, before him I was afflicted by the loss of al-Zubayr, and I have not been spared calamity in the loss of ʿUthmān. Muṣʿab was but a servant among the servants of Allah and an aide among my aides.

Know that the people of Iraq are folk of treachery and hypocrisy; they abandoned him and sold him for the lowest price. If he has been killed, then—by Allah—we do not die upon our beds as do the sons of Abī al-ʿĀṣ. By Allah, not a single one of them was ever killed in a battle-charge, neither in the pre-Islamic era nor in Islam. We die only at the points (3) of the spears or beneath the shade of the swords (3).

Verily, this world is but a loan from the Supreme King whose sovereignty never fades and whose dominion never perishes. If it comes toward me, I shall not seize it with arrogant exultation; and if it turns away, I shall not weep over it with the wailing of a sorrowful, humiliated one. I say these words of mine, and I seek Allah’s forgiveness for myself and for you.”

[wa-mimman tufiya fī hādhihi al-sanah mina al-aʿyān] (And among the notable persons who died in this same year):

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿar (4)—his father al-Ashʿar was Mālik ibn al-Ḥārith al-Nakhaʿī. Al-Ashʿar had been one of ʿAlī’s senior commanders; ʿAlī appointed him over Khurāsān, and he was among those who rose up against ʿUthmān and took part in his killing. Ibrāhīm himself was a commander famed for bravery and high standing. He is the one who slew ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād, as already mentioned, after which he joined Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr and was killed alongside him, as we have stated.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā al-Khuzaʿī (5): he enjoyed the Prophet’s companionship and transmitted hadith. ʿAlī appointed him over Khurāsān; he settled in Kūfa and governed it once.