المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

It is said that over all the waters of Ghatafan, on the night al-Hussein, lord of Fakhkh, was slain, a caller was heard crying out and saying:

Likewise, in those days the one who loved the People of the House (peace be upon them) could not feel safe for himself or his children from the enemies of the People of the House (peace be upon them) and their tyrannical helpers, nor was he safe from the rebuke of those who marched in their ranks. Many who loved the People of the House (peace be upon them) were forced to conceal their love and loyalty so as not to be exposed to harm and injustice. Whoever was known in those days for his loyalty to the People of the House (peace be upon them) could find no escape but to hide, to disguise himself, or to flee to where pursuers could not follow. Al-Kumayt, may God Almighty have mercy on him, said:

And Abu al-Qasim al-Rassi, ibn Ibrahim ibn Tabataba—Ismail al-Dibaj—said, when he fled from al-Mansur to Sindh:

And Abu Hanifa, or al-Tughra'i, says among some verses of his:

And Abu Firas al-Hamdani said:

And how excellent are the words of the poet of the People of the House (peace be upon them), Ibn Hammad, may God Almighty have mercy on him, when he says:

The Eighteenth Gathering
The Harm and Persecution Suffered by the People of the House (peace be upon them) and Their Followers
It comes in some of the visitation prayers of the Imams of the People of the House (peace be upon them): And you are divided among one struck down in the prayer-niche, his head split by the sword; a martyr borne upon the bier, his shroud pierced with arrows; one slain in the open,

his head raised upon a spear; one bound in prison, his limbs crushed with iron; and one poisoned, his entrails torn apart by the draughts of poison.(1) Truly, to God we belong and to Him we return, and there is no power and no strength save in God, the Most High, the Most Great.

Ibn Shahr Ashub, may mercy be upon him, related in al-Manaqib, from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), that he said to the people of Kufa: "Indeed, there will rise against you a man of wide gullet and bulging belly, who devours what he finds and seeks what he cannot find. Kill him—though you will never kill him. Behold, he will command you to revile me and to disavow me. As for reviling, then revile me; but as for disavowing me, do not disavow me, for I was born upon the natural faith, and I was foremost in Islam and in the migration."(2)

And it is related that Abu Jaafar Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir (peace be upon him) said to one of his companions: "O so-and-so! What we have suffered from the injustice of Quraysh against us, and their collusion against us, and what our followers and those who love us have suffered from the people! The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) passed away having declared that we are the most entitled of people over the people. Yet Quraysh conspired against us until they wrested the authority away from its rightful source, and used our right and our argument against the Ansar. Then Quraysh passed it among themselves, one after another, until it returned to us, whereupon our allegiance was broken and war was waged against us."

"The holder of the authority remained in arduous, uphill toil until he was slain. Then his son al-Hasan was given allegiance and was bound by covenant; then he was betrayed and abandoned. The people of Iraq turned upon him until he was stabbed with a dagger in his side, his camp was plundered, and the anklets were stripped from the legs of the mothers of his children. So he made peace with Muawiya, sparing his own blood and the blood of his household—who were few indeed. Then twenty thousand of the people of Iraq pledged allegiance to al-Hussein (peace be upon him), then betrayed him, rose against him while his allegiance was upon their necks, and killed him."

"Then we—the People of the House—were ceaselessly humiliated and oppressed, driven away and despised, deprived and killed, made to live in fear with no safety for our blood or the blood of our supporters. And the liars and deniers found, in their lying

and denial, a means to draw near to their patrons—to the wicked judges and corrupt officials in every land. So they told them fabricated and falsified narrations, and reported from us what we never said and never did, to make the people hate us. The greatest and worst of this was in the time of Muawiya, after the death of al-Hasan (peace be upon him). Our followers were killed in every land; hands and feet were cut off on mere suspicion; and whoever was mentioned as loving us and devoted to us was imprisoned, or had his property plundered, or his house demolished."

"Then the affliction kept growing harsher and increasing until the time of Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, the killer of al-Hussein (peace be upon him). Then came al-Hajjaj, who killed them by every kind of killing and seized them upon every suspicion and accusation—until a man would rather be called a heretic or an unbeliever than be called a follower of Ali (peace be upon him). And so it came to pass that a man known for his goodness—perhaps pious and truthful—would relate tremendous, astonishing narrations praising some of the rulers who had passed, things God Almighty never created, that never were and never happened, while he believed them to be true because of the multitude who had related them, men not known for lying or for lack of piety."(1)

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sayf al-Madaini related in his book (al-Ahdath), saying: Muawiya wrote a single circular to his governors after the Year of Unity: "Immunity is withdrawn from anyone who relates anything of the merits of Abu Turab and his household." So the preachers rose up in every region and on every pulpit, cursing Ali, disavowing him, and slandering him and his household. The people who suffered the most in those days were the people of Kufa, because of the great number of Ali's followers (peace be upon him) there. So he appointed over them Ziyad ibn Sumayya, joining Basra to his charge, and Ziyad would hunt down the Shia, for he knew them well, having been one of them in the days of Ali (peace be upon him). He killed them under every stone and clod, terrorized them, cut off hands and feet, gouged out eyes, crucified them upon the trunks of palm trees, and expelled and scattered them from Iraq, until no one known among them remained there.

And Muawiya wrote to his governors throughout all the regions: that they should not accept the testimony of any of the followers of Ali and his household (peace be upon them). And he wrote to them: "Seek out those among you who are of the partisans of Uthman and those who love him and are loyal to him and who relate his merits and virtues; draw their assemblies near, bring them close, honor them, and write to me of everything each man of them relates, along with his name, his father's name, and his clan."

So they did this, until they multiplied the merits and virtues of Uthman—because of what Muawiya sent them of money, garments, gifts, and land grants, which he poured out upon the Arabs and the clients among them. So this multiplied in every city, and people competed for status and worldly gain. No rejected and lowly person would come to one of Muawiya's officials and relate a merit or virtue of Uthman without having his name recorded, being brought near, and his request granted. They continued in this way for a time.

Then he wrote to his governors: "The narrations about Uthman have become numerous and have spread in every city, in every direction and region. When this letter of mine reaches you, summon the people to relate the merits of the Companions and the first caliphs, and leave no report related by any of the Muslims about Abu Turab without bringing me one to counter it concerning the Companions. For this is dearer to me, more pleasing to my eye, more crushing to the argument of Abu Turab and his followers, and harder upon them than the merits and virtues of Uthman."

His letters were read out to the people, and many narrations were related about the virtues of the Companions—fabricated, with no truth to them. The people exerted themselves in relating things of this sort, until they proclaimed it from the pulpits, and it was passed on to the schoolteachers, who taught their boys and pupils so much of it that they related it and learned it as they learned the Quran, and even taught it to their daughters, their wives, their servants, and their attendants. They continued thus as long as God willed.

Then he wrote a single circular to his governors in all the lands: "Look to anyone against whom clear proof is established that he loves Ali and his household (peace be upon them), and strike his name from the register, and cut off his stipend and his provision." And he coupled this with another circular: "Whomever you suspect of loyalty to these people, make an example of him, and demolish

his house." There was no affliction more severe or more widespread than this in Iraq, and especially in Kufa—so that a man of the followers of Ali (peace be upon him), when one he trusted came to him and entered his house, would confide his secret to him only after fearing his own servant and slave, and would not speak to him until he had taken the most solemn oaths from him that he would keep it concealed. So fabricated narrations multiplied and slander spread, and the jurists, judges, and rulers proceeded upon this. The greatest of the people in this affliction were the hypocritical reciters, and the lowly ones who feigned humility and devotion, fabricating narrations so as to win favor with their rulers, draw near to their assemblies, and gain through it wealth, estates, and dwellings—until those reports and narrations passed into the hands of the religious folk who would not deem lying and slander lawful, and they accepted them and related them, believing them to be true. Had they known they were false, they would not have related them nor held them as religion.

The matter remained so until al-Hasan ibn Ali (peace be upon him) died, whereupon the affliction and discord increased, and no one of this kind remained but in fear for his life, or driven as a fugitive across the land.

Then the matter grew more grievous after the killing of al-Hussein (peace be upon him), and Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan came to power and pressed hard upon the Shia. He appointed over them al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, and the people of devotion, piety, and religion drew near to him by hating Ali and showing loyalty to his enemies, and to those whom a faction of people claimed were likewise his enemies. So they multiplied the narrations of their virtues, precedents, and merits, and multiplied the disparagement of Ali (peace be upon him), faulting him, attacking him, and reviling him—until a man stood before al-Hajjaj (and it is said he was the grandfather of al-Asma'i, Abd al-Malik ibn Qarib) and cried out to him: "O Commander! My family wronged me and named me Ali. I am poor and destitute, and I am in need of the Commander's bounty." Al-Hajjaj laughed at this and said: "For the cleverness of the means you used, I have appointed you to such-and-such post."

Ibn Arafa, known as Nifṭawayh—one of the greatest and most renowned of the traditionists—related in his history something resembling this account, and said: Most of the fabricated narrations concerning the virtues of the Companions were forged in the days of the Umayyads, as a means of drawing near to them through what they thought would rub the noses of the Banu

Hashim in the dust.(1)

And from the book al-Muntazam: When the people of Kufa pelted Ziyad with pebbles while he was delivering a sermon from the pulpit, he cut off the hands of eighty of them, and resolved to demolish their houses and burn their palm groves. He gathered them until he filled the mosque and the courtyard with them, intending to compel them to disavow Ali (peace be upon him), knowing they would refuse, so that he might use this as a pretext to exterminate them and ruin their land.

And in a narration from Abdullah ibn al-Sa'ib and Kathir ibn al-Salt, they said: Ziyad ibn Abihi gathered the nobles of Kufa in the mosque of the courtyard to compel them to revile the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and disavow him, and whoever refused, he would put to the sword.(2) The people were in great distress over this. Then I dozed off, and suddenly I beheld a figure with a long neck, drooping eyelids and lashes, who filled all that lay between heaven and earth. I said to him: "Who are you?" He said: "I am the Striker, the One of the Neck—a plague. I have been sent to Ziyad." I awoke in terror, and we heard the wailing of mourning over him. A servant boy of Ziyad came out to the people and said: "Disperse, for the Commander is occupied with matters other than you." We heard the cries from within the palace, and we had not moved before the doorkeeper came out and said: "Disperse, for the Commander has been stricken"—for paralysis had struck him. So I composed the following on this and recited:

The Nineteenth Gathering
Some of Those Killed for Their Love of the People of the House (peace be upon them)
Among what is related from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), from a speech of his to his companions—as in Nahj al-Balagha—he (peace be upon him) said: "Indeed, there will rise against you after me a man of wide gullet and bulging belly, who devours what he finds and seeks what he cannot find. Kill him—though you will never kill him. Behold, he will command you to revile me and to disavow me. As for reviling, then revile me, for it is a purification for me and a deliverance for you; but as for disavowal, do not disavow me, for I was born upon the natural faith, and I was foremost in faith and in the migration."(1)

Among those killed for their love of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and in his cause was Maytham al-Tammar, may mercy be upon him. It is related that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said one day to Maytham al-Tammar (may God be pleased with him): "You will be seized after me and crucified, and pierced with a spear. On the third day, blood will gush from your nostrils and your mouth, and your beard will be dyed with it. So await that dyeing. You will be crucified at the gate of Amr ibn Hurayth, the tenth of ten; you will be the shortest of them in the height of your stake, and the nearest of them to the cleansing place. Come, that I may show you the palm tree upon whose trunk you will be crucified." So he showed it to him, and Maytham used to come to it and pray beside it and say: "Blessed be you, O palm tree—for you I was created, and for me you were nourished." He continued to tend it until it was cut down, and until he knew the place where he would be crucified in Kufa.

He said: Maytham used to meet Amr ibn Hurayth and say: "I am to be your neighbor, so treat your neighbor well." And Amr would say to him: "Do you wish to buy the house of Ibn Mas'ud or the house of Ibn Hakim?"—not knowing what he meant.

And it is related from Abu al-Hasan al-Rida (peace be upon him), from his father, from his forefathers, may God's blessings be upon them,

who said: Maytham al-Tammar came to the house of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), and it was said to him that he was asleep. So he called out at the top of his voice: "Wake up, O sleeper! By God, your beard shall be dyed from your head!" The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) awoke and said: "Let Maytham in." Then he said to him: "O sleeper! By God, your beard shall be dyed from your head!" He said: "You have spoken truly. And you, by God, your hands and feet and tongue shall be cut off, and the palm tree at al-Kunasa shall be cut down and split into four pieces, and you shall be crucified upon a quarter of it, and Hujr ibn Adi upon a quarter, and Muhammad ibn Aktham upon a quarter, and Khalid ibn Mas'ud upon a quarter."

Maytham said: I doubted within myself and said: "Does Ali inform us of the unseen?" So I said to him: "Will that truly come to pass, O Commander of the Faithful?" He said: "Yes, by the Lord of the Kaaba—thus did the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) entrust it to me."

He said: I asked: "Why will that be done to me, O Commander of the Faithful?" He said: "The harsh and ignoble one, the son of the wicked slave woman, Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, will surely seize you."

He said: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) used to go out to the cemetery, and I was with him, and he would pass by the palm tree and say to me: "O Maytham! There is a matter to come between you and this tree."

He said: When Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad took charge of Kufa and entered it, his banner caught upon the palm tree at al-Kunasa and tore. He took it as an evil omen and ordered the tree cut down. A man of the carpenters bought it and split it into four pieces.

Maytham said: So I told my son Salih: "Take an iron nail and engrave my name and my father's name upon it, and drive it into one of those trunks." He said: Some days after that, a group of the market people came to me and said: "O Maytham! Rise with us to the Commander; let us complain to him about the market official and ask him to remove him from over us and appoint another in his place."

He said: I was the spokesman of the group, and he listened to me, and my eloquence impressed him. Then Amr ibn Hurayth said to him: "May God set the Commander aright—do you know this speaker?" He said: "Who is he?" He said: "Maytham al-Tammar, the liar." He said: Then he sat upright and said to me: "What do you say?" I said: "He has lied, may God set the Commander aright;

rather, I am the truthful one, the client of the truthful one, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Commander of the Faithful in truth." He said to me: "You shall disavow Ali, and you shall recount his faults, and you shall give your loyalty to Uthman and recount his virtues—or I shall cut off your hands and feet and crucify you." I wept. He said to me: "You weep at the word before the deed?" I said: "By God, I did not weep at the word nor at the deed; rather, I wept over a doubt that had entered me the day my lord and master informed me." He said to me: "And what did he say to you?" I said: "I came to the door, and it was said to me that he was asleep. So I called out: 'Wake up, O sleeper! By God, your beard shall be dyed from your head.' He said: 'You have spoken truly. And you, by God, your hands and feet and tongue shall be cut off, and you shall be crucified.' I said: 'And who will do that to me, O Commander of the Faithful?' He said: 'The harsh and ignoble one, the son of the wicked slave woman, Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, will seize you.'"

He said: Then he filled with rage and said to me: "By God, I shall cut off your hands and feet, and I shall leave your tongue so that I may prove you a liar and prove your master a liar." So he commanded, and his hands and feet were cut off. Then he was brought out and ordered to be crucified. He called out at the top of his voice: "O people! Whoever wishes to hear the hidden hadith concerning Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him)..." He said: The people gathered, and he began to relate wonders to them.

He said: Amr ibn Hurayth came out heading for his house and said: "What is this crowd?" They said: "Maytham al-Tammar is relating to the people about Ali ibn Abi Talib." He said: So he turned back in haste and said: "May God set the Commander aright! Hurry and send someone to cut off this man's tongue, for I am not safe that he will turn the hearts of the people of Kufa and they will rise against you." He said: Then he turned to a guard standing over his head and said: "Go and cut off his tongue." He said: The guard came to him and said: "O Maytham!" He said: "What do you wish?" He said: "Put out your tongue, for the Commander has ordered me to cut it off." Maytham said: "Did not the son of the wicked slave woman claim he would prove me a liar and prove my master a liar? Here is my tongue." He said: So he cut off his tongue, and he writhed for an hour in his blood, then died. He was ordered crucified. Salih said: I went some days later, and there he was, crucified

upon the quarter into which I had driven the nail.(1)

Among them was Rashid al-Hajari, may God's favor be upon him. It is related, by chain of transmission from Fudayl ibn al-Zubayr, who said: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) went out to the orchard of al-Barni with his companions, and sat beneath a palm tree. Then he ordered a palm tree to be picked, and fresh dates were brought down from it and set before them. They said: Rashid al-Hajari said: "O Commander of the Faithful, how delicious are these dates!" He said: "O Rashid, indeed you shall be crucified upon its trunk." Rashid said: So I used to go to it at both ends of the day to water it, and the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) passed away. He said: One day I came to it and found its fronds had been cut. I said: "My time draws near." Then I came one day, and the official came and said: "Answer the summons of the Commander." So I went to him, and when I entered the palace, there was the wood cast down, and in it the well-beam. I came and struck the beam with my foot and said: "For me you were nourished, and for me you grew." Then I was brought before Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, and he said: "Bring forth your master's lie." I said: "By God, I am no liar, nor is he. He informed me that you would cut off my hands and feet and tongue..."

And from Qanwa, daughter of Rashid al-Hajari, who said: I heard my father saying: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) told me: "O Rashid! How will your endurance be when the bastard of the Umayyads sends for you and cuts off your hands, your feet, and your tongue?" I said: "O Commander of the Faithful, will the end of that be Paradise?" He said: "Yes, O Rashid—you will be with me in this world and the next." She said: By God, the days had not passed before the bastard Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad sent for him and summoned him to disavow the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him). He refused to disavow him, and the bastard said to him: "By what manner of death did he say you would die?" He said: "My dear friend informed me that you would summon me to disavow him, and I would not disavow him, so you would bring me forward and cut off my hands, my feet, and my tongue." He said: "By God, I shall prove his words about you false. Bring him forward and cut off his hands and feet, but leave his tongue." So his tribesmen carried him after his hands and feet were cut off, and I said to him: "O father! How do you feel the pain of what has befallen you?" He said: "No, my daughter,

it is only like the jostling among a crowd." When we carried him and brought him out of the palace, the people gathered around him, and he said: "Bring me a scroll and an inkpot, that I may write for you what will come to pass until the Hour rises—for the people still have something they have not yet taken from me." So they brought him a scroll, and he wrote at the head of the page: "In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate." Then word reached the accursed one that he was writing for the people what would come to pass until the Hour rises, so he sent the bloodletter to him, who cut out his tongue, and he died that very night.

The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) used to call him Rashid of the Calamities, for he had imparted to him the knowledge of calamities and deaths. During his life, when he met a man, he would say to him: "O so-and-so, you will die by such-and-such death," and "You, O so-and-so, will be killed by such-and-such killing"—and it would be as Rashid said. The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) used to say to him: "You are Rashid of the Calamities; you will be killed by this killing"—and it was as the Commander of the Faithful, may God's blessings be upon him, said.(1)

Among them was Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza'i, may God's favor be upon him. It comes in al-Bihar that Amr ibn al-Hamq was a companion of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), and then a companion of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him). In the words of the Imams, he was a righteous servant whom worship had worn down, until it wasted his body and yellowed his complexion. When the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) was killed, Muawiya sought him out to kill him, so he would not stay in Kufa. Then Muawiya sent him guarantees of safety, pledges, and covenants that no harm would befall him, so he entered Kufa—whereupon Muawiya seized him and killed him.

And from Shamir ibn Sadir al-Azdi, who said: Ali (peace be upon him) said to Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza'i: "O Amr! You will be killed after me, and your head will be carried about—it is the first head to be carried about in Islam. Woe to your killer! Behold, you will not stay with any people but they will hand you over whole—except for this clan of Banu Amr ibn Amir of al-Azd; they will not hand you over, nor will they forsake you." He said: By God, the days had not passed before Amr ibn al-Hamq, during the caliphate of Muawiya, moved among the tribes, fearful and terrified, until he came down

among his own people of Banu Khuza'a, who handed him over. So he was killed, and his head was carried from Iraq to Muawiya.(1)

Ibn Kathir said: It is reported in a hadith that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) prayed for him that God would let him enjoy his youth, and so he lived eighty years with no white hair seen in his beard. He was one of the four who came in upon Uthman. Then he became, after that, one of the followers of Ali (peace be upon him), and witnessed with him the Battle of the Camel and Siffin. He was among those who aided Hujr ibn Adi, so Ziyad sought him out, and he fled to Mosul.(2)

And al-Yaqubi related in his history that the noble Companion Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza'i was among the companions of Hujr ibn Adi who would not stay silent at the reviling of the Imam Ali (peace be upon him) upon the pulpit of Kufa. So Muawiya ordered his governor Ziyad ibn Abihi to seize them and dispatch them to him in Damascus. Amr ibn al-Hamq fled, along with a number with him, to Mosul. Abd al-Rahman ibn Umm al-Hakam—who was Muawiya's governor over Mosul—learned of the whereabouts of Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza'i and Rifa'a ibn Shaddad, and sent in pursuit of them. The two fled, and Amr ibn al-Hamq was gravely ill. While on part of the road, a snake bit Amr, and he said: "God is greatest! The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) said to me: 'O Amr! The jinn and mankind shall share in your killing.'" Then he said to Rifa'a: "Go your way, for I am to be seized and killed." The messengers of Abd al-Rahman ibn Umm al-Hakam caught up with him and seized him, and his neck was struck, and his head was set upon a spear and paraded about—and it was the first head paraded about in Islam. Muawiya had imprisoned his wife in Damascus, and when his head was brought, he sent it and had it placed in her lap. She said to the messenger: "Convey to Muawiya what I say: May God demand his blood, and hasten woe upon him from His vengeance, for he has committed a monstrous deed and killed a pious, pure man." And he was the first to imprison women for the offenses of men.(3)

Ibn Asakir said: Amr ibn al-Hamq was married to Amina bint al-Sharid, whom Muawiya imprisoned

in the prison of Damascus for a time, until he sent her the head of Amr ibn al-Hamq, which was cast into her lap. She was horrified by it, then she placed it in her lap, laid her palm upon his brow, then kissed his mouth, and said: "You hid him from me for so long, then you sent him to me slain—so welcome to that as a gift, neither hated nor to be hated."

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Katib, known as al-Shabushti, mentioned that when Amr ibn al-Hamq was killed, his head was carried to Muawiya, and it was the first head carried in Islam from one land to another. His wife Amina bint al-Sharid was in Damascus, and when the head of Amr was carried to him, he ordered it cast into her lap, and that what she said be heard. When she saw it, she was horrified, and she fell upon it kissing it, and said: "O my woe for him in the house of disgrace! You kept him from me long, then sent him to me slain. So welcome and greetings—I was never one to hate him, and I shall never forget him. Tell Muawiya: May God leave your children orphaned, and make your family desolate of you, and may He never forgive your sin."(1)

The genealogist Abu Jaafar Muhammad ibn Habib said in his book al-Muhabbar: And Muawiya raised up the head of Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza'i—who was a Shia—and had it paraded about the marketplace.(2)

Ibn Kathir said: It was paraded about in Syria and elsewhere, and it was the first head ever paraded about.(3)

But, O believers, there is no calamity like the calamity of the fragrant flower of the Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), al-Hussein (peace be upon him), whose head was paraded through the lands upon a tall spear, while his womenfolk and daughters looked upon it, his gray hairs dyed with his blood, and his body left upon the dust of Karbala for three days without burial. How excellent are the words of Ibn Hammad, may mercy be upon him, when he says:

The Twentieth Gathering
Some More of Those Killed for Their Love of the People of the House (peace be upon them)
and What the Shia Suffered from the Injustice of the Tyrant Rulers
O my masters, O family of the Messenger of God, by you I draw near to God, glorified and exalted, by opposing those who betrayed you, broke their allegiance to you, denied your guardianship, rejected your station, threw off the collar of obedience to you, abandoned the bonds of love for you, drew near to their Pharaohs by disavowing you and turning away from you, prevented you from establishing the prescribed punishments, from uprooting denial, mending the rupture, gathering the scattered, sealing the breaches, straightening the crookedness, carrying out the laws, refining Islam, and suppressing sins. They raised against you the dust of wars and discord, and turned upon you the swords of malice; they tore aside your veils, and bought wine with your fifth (khums), and diverted the alms of the poor to jesters and mockers.(2)

Among those killed for their love of the People of the House (peace be upon them) was Hujr ibn Adi, who was one of the foremost