the leading disciples of Ibn Masʿūd, and one of the senior figures of Kūfah. He kept a continual fast, to the point that one of his eyes was lost because of it. He had journeyed to the Sacred House on eighty occasions for both ḥajj and ʿumrah, always entering into iḥrām from Kūfah itself.
He died in this same year.
He would fast until his complexion turned first green, then yellow. When his final illness came, he wept. People asked him, “Why this distress?” He replied, “And why should I not be distressed? Who has more cause for it than I? By Allah, even if I were informed that Allah had forgiven me, I would still feel too shy before Him on account of what I have done. A man may commit a minor offence against another man; the latter pardons him, yet he continues to feel ashamed before him.” (1)
Humrān ibn Abān (2), the freedman of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, was among the captives of ʿAyn al-Tamr (3); ʿUthmān purchased him, and he was the one who used to grant people permission to enter upon ʿUthmān. He too died this year, and Allah, exalted is He, knows best (4).
[Then the year 76 AH began]
At its outset, on Wednesday night, the first of Ṣafar, Ṣāliḥ ibn Musarriḥ, the leader of the Ṣufriyya, and Shabīb ibn Yazīd, one of the bravest of the Khawārij, gathered together. Ṣāliḥ ibn Musarriḥ addressed them, enjoining fear of Allah, urging them to fight in His cause, and instructing them not to fight anyone until they had first called him to join their ranks. They then turned upon the mounts belonging to Muḥammad ibn Marwān, the governor of al-Jazīrah, seized them, and thereby strengthened themselves (5).
They remained in the territory of Dārā for thirteen nights, whereupon the inhabitants of Dārā, Naṣībīn, and Sinjār fortified themselves against them. Muḥammad ibn Marwān, the governor of al-Jazīrah, dispatched five hundred horsemen under ʿAdiy ibn ʿAdiy ibn ʿAmīrah, then reinforced them with another five hundred. Thus, with a thousand men, he advanced from Ḥarrān towards them—moving, as it were, to certain death before his very eyes, knowing full well the endurance, strength, and fierce valor of the Khawārij.
When they met the Khawārij, the latter inflicted upon them a crushing, grievous defeat, seized everything in their camp, and the remnants fled back to Muḥammad ibn Marwān. Enraged, he sent a further one thousand five hundred men under al-Ḥārith ibn Jaʿwanah, and another one thousand five hundred under Khālid ibn Juʾz al-Sulamī (6), saying to the two of them, “Whichever of you reaches them first is…"