whose sins—were they to be weighed against the sins of all mankind and jinn—would outweigh them. So take care that you are not he.”

Ibn al-Zubayr replied, “O Ibn ʿAmr, you have read the previous scriptures and kept company with the Prophet ﷺ.” ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr said, “I hereby testify that I am turning my face toward Syria to fight in Allah’s cause.”
The editor comments: Raising this report to the Prophet ﷺ may be mistaken; it is more likely from the speech of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr himself, drawn from the two saddle-bags of writings he took at Yarmuk from the People of the Book. Allah knows best.

Wakiʿ narrated—through al-Thawri, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, Abū Ṣādiq, Ḥabashī al-Kinānī, and ʿAlīm al-Kindī—from Salmān al-Fārisī, who said: “This House will most certainly be burned down by a man from the family of al-Zubayr.” (1)

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah reported—through Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Abū Fuḍayl, Sālim ibn Abī Ḥafṣah, and Mundhir al-Thawrī—that Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah said: “O Allah, You know—and You taught me to know—that Ibn al-Zubayr will not leave it except slain, his head carried around the markets.” (2)

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār related, through Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, that the first clear words ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr uttered as a small child were, “the sword, the sword,” and he would not take it from his mouth. Whenever al-Zubayr heard him say that he would remark, “By Allah, a day—and another day, and days—will surely come upon you on account of it.” (3)

The manner of Ibn al-Zubayr’s death has already been described: al-Ḥajjāj crucified him on a tree-trunk above al-Thaniyyah and tied a dead cat beside him, yet the fragrance of musk overpowered its stench. His mother sent word to al-Ḥajjāj saying, “May Allah destroy you! Why have you crucified my son?” He replied, “He and I raced for this lofty post, and he reached it before I did.” (4)
His mother then came, stood before him, supplicated for him at length, and not a single tear fell from her eyes; then she left. Ibn ʿUmar likewise stood over him, prayed for him, and lavished the highest praise upon him.

Al-Wāqidī said: Nāfiʿ ibn Thābit narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allah, the freedman of Asmāʾ, who said: When ʿAbd Allah was killed, his mother came and stood over him while mounted on her animal. Al-Ḥajjāj approached with his companions, asked about her, and, when informed, came and stood before her.

He said, “How have you found Allah’s victory for the Truth and its manifestation?”
She answered, “And by what measure has Falsehood gained the upper hand over Truth and its people? You stand between its filth and the Garden!”
He said, “Your son committed sacrilege in this Sacred House. Allah the Exalted has said: ‘Whoever intends therein to deviate with wrongdoing, We shall cause him to taste a painful punishment’ (al-Ḥajj 25). Allah has already made him taste that painful punishment; he blocked the roads.”
She retorted, “You lie! He was the first child born in Islam in Madinah; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ rejoiced at his birth, softened a date in his own hand and rubbed it into his mouth, and the Muslims exclaimed takbīr until Madinah shook with joy. You and your companions have rejoiced at his killing, but those who rejoiced at his birth were far better than you and your companions. Moreover, he was dutiful to his parents, constantly fasting, standing at night with the Book of Allah, venerating the sacred precincts of Allah, and he detested those who disobey