perfumed. He rose and began to pray, whereupon she rose and prayed with him; they continued in prayer until the first light of dawn.
His nephew relates: “I came to him and said, ‘Uncle, your cousin was presented to you tonight, yet you stood to pray and left her!’ He replied, ‘You led me into a room at the beginning of the day that made me think of the Fire, and into another near day’s end that made me think of Paradise, and my mind kept dwelling on the two until morning. The room that reminds me of the Fire is the bathhouse, and the room that reminds me of Paradise is the bridal chamber.’
“A man once said to him, ‘Pray to Allah for me.’ Ṣilah answered, ‘May Allah incline you toward what endures, detach you from what perishes, and grant you the certainty that relies on Him alone and looks to none but Him in matters of religion.’
“On another campaign Ṣilah was accompanied by his son. He said to him, ‘My son, advance and fight so that I may seek reward for your martyrdom.’ The youth charged, fought, and was killed; Ṣilah then advanced, fought, and was killed as well.
“When the women gathered around his wife, Muʿādhah al-ʿAdawiyyah, she said, ‘If you have come to congratulate me, then welcome; but if you have come to offer condolences, go back.’ Ṣilah fell on that expedition—he and his son—toward the lands of Persia in this very year (1).
Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawī (2) witnessed the conquest of Egypt and settled there; he was a Companion. The Byzantines killed him at Barqah in the Maghrib. A cry for help had reached the governor of Egypt, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān, that Byzantine forces had landed at Barqah, so he ordered Zuhayr to march against them. Zuhayr set out with forty men, met the Byzantines, and intended to delay the engagement until reinforcements arrived, but his men said, ‘Abū Shaddād, lead us in a charge against them!’ They charged and were all killed.
Al-Mundhir ibn al-Jārūd (3) also died in this year. He had been in charge of the public treasury and had visited Muʿāwiyah. Allah knows best (4).
[Then the year seventy-seven began.]
In it al-Ḥajjāj mobilized the fighting men of Kūfah—forty thousand strong—and another ten thousand joined them, making fifty thousand. He appointed ʿAttāb ibn Warqāʾ over them and instructed him to march against Shabīb ibn Yazīd and to stand firm in fighting him; they were