as a guide to follow, a commander to obey, and a trustee whose counsel you seek—so of what use is any experience to you, or any clarification (1)? Were you not my companions at Ahwāz, where you were repaid with deception, banded together upon betrayal, agreed upon disbelief, and imagined that Allah would abandon His religion and the caliphate? By Allah, I merely cast a glance at you and you slipped away furtively, fleeing in haste. And the Day of al-Zāwiya—ah, what of the Day of al-Zāwiya!—witness to your collapse, your disputes and wrangling, Allah’s repudiation of you, and the retreat of your hearts when you turned back like camels straying from their homelands: no man asked after his brother, no elder looked back for his sons, once blades bit into you and spears prodded you. And the Day of Dayr al-Jamājim—what of the Day of Dayr al-Jamājim!—there the battles and epics were fought
with strokes that severed heads from their pillows (2)
… and made a companion forget his closest friend.

People of Iraq, people of apostasies after transgressions, of treacheries after furtive plots (3), of impulse after impulse! If we post you to the frontiers you pilfer and cower; when you feel safe you spread alarm; when you are afraid you dissemble. You recall no blessing and thank for no favor. Let a covenant-breaker belittle you, a deviant entice you, a sinner rally you, a tyrant seek your help, or a rebel ask your support—you answer his call, heed his cry, and rush to him light and heavy, mounted and on foot. People of Iraq! Has any agitator stirred, any raven croaked, any bellower bellowed, without your becoming his followers and helpers? People of Iraq! Have the admonitions not profited you? Have the events not restrained you? Has Allah not tightened His grip upon you, making you taste the heat of His sword and the painful might of His punishment and retribution?

He then turned to the Syrians and said:

People of Syria! I am to you like the male ostrich brandishing his spear over his chicks: he drives filth away from them (4), keeps stones far, shelters them from rain, protects them from fog, and guards them from flies. People of Syria! You are the tunic and the cloak, the coverlet and the sandal; you are the allies and the helpers, the inner garment before the outer. Through you the sanctuary and the stronghold are defended; with you the enemy ranks are bombarded and every stubborn foe is routed and turned back (5).

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā (6) said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī narrated to us; I heard an elder of Quraysh known as Abū Bakr al-Taymī say: Al-Ḥajjāj used to declare in his sermons—he was a master of eloquence—“Allah created Adam and his progeny from the earth, then set them walking upon its surface: they ate its fruits, drank from its rivers, and split it open with picks and spades; then …”