When people saw how ruthless Ibn Ziyad was, they all went out.

When people saw how ruthless Ibn Ziyad was, they all went out.[^2] The Hosts Al-Shimr marched out[^3] with four thousand or more; Yazid Ibn al-Rikab marched out with two thousand; al-Hasin Ibn Namir al-Tamimi marched out with four thousand; Shabth Ibn Rab’i marched out with one thousand; Ka’b Ibn Talhah marched out with three thousand; Hijar Ibn Abjar marched out with one thousand; Mudayir Ibn Rahinah al-Mazini marched out with three thousand, and Nasr Ibn Harshah was in command of two thousand[^4], thus the total number of those who assembled under the command of Ibn Sa’d on the sixth of Muharram totalled twenty thousand strong[^5].

Ibn Ziyad kept sending reinforcements to Ibn Sa’d till the number of the latter’s troops swelled to thirty thousand. Imam Abu ‘Abdullah, Ja’far as-Sadiq (‘a), has narrated saying, “Al-Husayn (‘a) visited his brother al-Hasan (‘a) during his sickness that caused his martyrdom. Having seen his condition, he wept. Al-Hasan (‘a) asked him, ‘O father of ‘Abdullah! What grieves you?' ‘I am grieved on account of the harm inflicted on you,' he answered.

Al-Hasan, peace be upon him, said, ‘What has been administered to me is only a poison to kill me, but there is no day like your own day, O father of ‘Abdullah, when thirty thousand strong, all claiming to belong to the nation of our grandfather, Muhammad, alleging adherence to the Islamic faith, will assemble to kill you and shed your blood and violate your sanctity and arrest your offspring and women and plunder your wealth.

It is then that Banu Umayyah will be cursed and the sky will rain ashes and blood, and everything, even the beasts in the jungles and the fish in the seas, will mourn you.”[^6] Ibn Ziyad wrote Ibn Sa’d saying, “I have not left you any excuse with regard to providing you with plenty of horses and men; so, you should not receive the evening nor the day thereafter before I hear good news about you.” He urged him on the sixth day of Muharram to start the war.[^7] They assembled their hosts against Muhammad's son, At Taff , when they remembered their ancestors...

Allahu Akbar! O pillars of this earth! Dissolve! The son of piety has to face the hosts Whose banner the son of the blood-shedder tied, How insolent they were when they met His forehead with their very swords...! The Watering Place Modesty never wetted their faces Even if they had walked through the Safa, Even its stones would have felt modest.