And ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān (1), the Kharijite, had at first been numbered among the People of the Sunnah and the Community. He married an exceptionally beautiful woman who belonged to the Kharijites and became enamoured of her. He himself, however, was ill-favoured in appearance (2). Hoping to bring her back to the Sunnah, he urged her to repent, but she refused; in the end he apostasised with her and adopted her doctrine. He was counted among the accomplished poets (3), and he is the author of the following verses on the killing of ʿAlī and his slayer:

O blow from a God-fearing man whose only aim
was to reach the good pleasure of the Lord of the Throne!
Each time I recall him I deem him that day
the one whose balance with Allah will be the weightiest.
How noble a people whose graves are the bellies of birds—
never did they sully their faith with tyranny or aggression. (4)

Al-Thawrī would often quote these lines as an example of disdain for the world, and they read:

I see the wretched sons of men never weary of it,
though in it they are naked and hungry.
Even if they cherish it, I see that it is
a summer cloud that soon will disperse.
Like travellers who met their needs and rode on,
their road lies open, its markers plain. (5)

[ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān died in the year 84 AH.
Some scholars (6) responded to his earlier verses about the killing of ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) with lines in the same metre and rhyme:

No—rather a blow from a wretch whose only aim
was to incur from the Lord of the Throne sheer loss.
Each time I recall him I deem him that day
the most miserable of creation before Allah.] (7)