By God we will never leave you until God knows that we have...
By God we will never leave you until God knows that we have preserved through you (the company of His Apostle) in his absence. By God, if I knew what I would die and then be revived and then burnt and then revived, and then scattered, and that would be done to me seventy times, I would never leave you until I met my death (fighting) on your behalf. So how could I do it when there can only be one death, which is a great blessing which can never be rejected. Zuhayr b.
al-Qayn, may God have mercy on him, spoke: By God, I would prefer to be killed and then recalled to life; and then be killed a thousand times in this manner; and that in this way God, the Mighty and Exalted, should protect your life and the lives of these young men of your House. All his followers spoke in similar vein, one after the other. Al- Husayn, peace be on him, called (on God to) reward them well and then went back to his tent. [ Ali b.
al-Husayn, peace be on them, Zayn al Abidin reported: ] I was sitting on that evening (before the morning of the day) in which my father was killed. With me was my aunt, Zaynab, who was nursing me when my father left to go to his tent. With him was Juwayn, the retainer (mawla) of Abu Dharr al-Ghiffarl, who was preparing his sword and putting it right My father recited: Time, shame on you as a friend! At the day's dawning and the sun's setting, How many a companion or seeker will be a corpse!
Time will not be satisfied with any substitute. The matter will rest with the Mighty One, and every living creature will have to journey along my path. He repeated it twice or three times. I understood it and realised what he meant. Tears choked me and I pushed them back. I kept silent and knew that tribulation had come upon us.
As for my aunt, she heard what I heard - but she is a woman and weakness and grief are part of the qualities of women; she could not control herself, she jumped up, tearing at her clothes and sighing, and went to him. "Then I will lose (a brother)," Zaynab said to him.