nor from the ignorant and the mendacious.

Fourth: It is established in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī that the head was carried before ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād, who began to strike its front teeth with a cane while Anas ibn Mālik looked on (1). The Musnad records that this occurred in the presence of Abū Barzah al-Aslamī (2). Some people, however, report—through a broken chain—that the tapping took place before Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah; that report is false.

Abū Barzah and Anas ibn Mālik were both in Iraq, not in Syria, whereas Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah was in Syria and not in Iraq when al-Ḥusayn was killed. Consequently, anyone who claims that the prodding with the cane happened in Yazīd’s presence while those two Companions stood before him is certainly lying; the mass-transmitted evidence leaves no doubt about this falsehood.

It is likewise transmitted by multiple continuous chains that ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād was governor of Iraq at the time of al-Ḥusayn’s death. Sound reports further attest that he dispatched ʿUmar ibn Saʿd to command the force that fought al-Ḥusayn; ʿUmar initially refused, but Ibn Ziyād enticed and threatened him until he did what he did (3).

Scholars who compile reports with reliable isnāds relate that when the people of Iraq wrote to al-Ḥusayn while he was in the Ḥijāz, urging him to come to them and protesting that the Sunnah had been suppressed and innovation revived, they sent, it is said, a chest-full of letters and more. His well-wishers and close relatives advised him in the matter.

As the verse says:
“Not every man of intellect will give you his counsel,
nor is everyone who gives counsel truly wise.”

Among those who counseled him were ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and others.