Then he dug pits in the ground...

Then he dug pits in the ground, filled them with fire and announced that safe will remain the one who rejects the religion of this Prophet and those who do not do so will be burnt in this pit. Many rejected the faith of the Prophet and many were hurled in the fire. At last, a woman was brought forth who had a babe in arms (aged only one month). The king was informed that the woman refuses to obey the king’s order.

So she was threateningly asked whether she was prepared to obey the king or was prepared to be burnt alive. They intended to fling her in the fire. On looking at her child, the woman hesitated. The child according to Divine commandment spoke up: O my kind mother! enter the fire with me. By Allah, this burning will pleases Him. So the woman jumped into the fire with her child.

According to another tradition, ‘Ali said that the faith of Majus (fire worshippers) was also ordained in a book and that they too had a king. One day that king in a moment of passion indulged in adultery with his own mother and sisters. When he came to his senses, he abhorred this misdeed but to save his face told his people that this deed of his was proper and admissible. When the people refused to agree with him he made pits in the ground and hurled them into the fire ignited in those pits.

Maytham al-Tammar has reported from ‘Ali that Amir al-Mu’minin said, the makers of the pit were ten people who were burnt in the fire. Likewise ten persons will be killed by people in this bazaar of al-Kufah. He intended to say that the cursed man Ibn Ziyad had, after his arrival in al-Kufah, ordered a group to oppose ‘Ali and that those of them who did not fulfill his wish were killed. As will be narrated henceforth, Inshallah-Maytham al-Tammar and Rashid Hujri were also among that group.

It is recorded in reliable sources that Imam al-Baqir said that Umar sent a man as the head of an army to a Syrian city. That city was captured and its residents accepted Islam. A mosque was built for them. When it was completed, it fell down. It was reconstructed, but again fell down. This happened thrice. When this strange happening was reported to caliph Umar, he called the companions of the holy Prophet.

When none of them could explain this happening he asked ‘Ali who said that the reason was that in the old days Allah Almighty had appointed a Prophet for the residents of this place but they killed the messenger of Allah and buried him at the spot where the mosque is being constructed.