Return to Madina

Abd al-Malik reported:

I rode my mount and went towards Medina. (On the way) one of Quraysh met me.

“What is the news?” he asked.

“The news is for the governor, (then) you will hear it,” I answered.

“We belong to God and to Him we will return,” he said. “By God, al Husayn, peace be on him, has been killed.”

When I went to Amr Ibn Said, he asked, “What is your purpose?”

“What will please the governor,” I answered, “Al Husayn, peace be on him, has been killed.”

“Go out and announce his being killed,” he told me.

I announced (it). I have never heard such wailing as the wailing of the Banu Hashim in their houses for al Husayn Ibn ‘Ali, peace be on him, when they heard the announcement of his death. I went back (in) to ‘Amr Ibn Said. When he saw me, he smiled at me and laughed. Then he quoted a verse of Amr Ibn Madikarib, “Then women of Banu Ziyad raised a great lament like the lamentation of our women mourning (after the battle) of al-ArnaIbn”

“This lamentation is in return for the lamentation for Uthman,” ‘Amr exclaimed. Then he went up on the pulpit and informed the people about the killing of al Husayn Ibn ‘Ali, and he summoned (them to obey) Yazid Ibn Muawiya. (After that) he went down.

One of the retainers (mawali) of Abd Allah Ibn Jafar Ibn Abi Talib, peace be on him, went to him and announced the news of the killing of his two sons and he said that we (all return) to God.

“This is what we have through al Husayn Ibn ‘Ali, peace be on them,” said Abu Salasil, the retainer (mawla) of Abd Allah.

“O son of an obscene (woman),” exclaimed Abd Allah Ibn Jafar, taking off his shoe (to strike him). “Are you saying this of al Husayn, peace be on him? If I had been present with him, I would have preferred not to leave him and to be killed with him. By God, I would not have withheld those two from him and I take consolation from what befell them in that these two were struck down with my brother and cousin, consoling him and enduring with him.”

He went forward to those who were sitting with him and said, “Praise be to God, Who has (made life hard for me) through the death of al Husayn. For I did not console al Husayn with my own hands, my two sons consoled him.”

Umm Luqman, the daughter of Aqil Ibn Abi Talib, may God have mercy on them, came out crying when she heard the news of the death of al Husayn, peace be on him. With her were her sisters Umm Hani’, Ramla and Zaynab, daughters of Aqil Ibn Abi Talib, may God have mercy on them.

She wept for her (relatives) slain on the bank and she recited, “What would you say if the Prophet asked you: What have you, the last of the (religious) communities, done With my offspring and my family after my departure from them? They are prisoners and slain and have been stained with their own blood. What sort of reward is this for my advice to you, that you should oppose me by doing evil to my blood relations?”

On the night of the day upon which Amr Ibn Said had given the public notice of the killing of al Husayn Ibn ‘Ali, peace be upon them, in Medina, in the middle of the night the Medians heard a voice calling out. They listened to the voice but they did not see any person.

The voice called out, “O men who ignorantly killed al Husayn; hear the news of punishment and chastisement All the people of heaven, prophets, angels and slain, prosecute you. You have been cursed by the tongue of the son of David, and (that) of Moses and (that) of the master of the Gospels.”