She then said: ‘By my life, you have killed my elders and destroyed my family.

She then said: ‘By my life, you have killed my elders and destroyed my family. [You have] cut my branches and extracted my roots! If this is what cures you, then you have been cured!’ ‘Ubaidullah said: ‘This is a woman who rhymes her speech ( sajja’ah ).[^13] By my life, your father used to speak in rhymed prose and was a poet.’ She answered: ‘What has a woman to do with rhythmic construction of statements! I have [things] to distract me from that.

But this is the agony of my heart that is flowing on my tongue.’[^14] Thereafter, ‘Ubaidullah bin Ziyad looked at ‘Ali bin al-Husayn and asked him: ‘What is your name?’ He replied: ‘I am ‘Ali bin al-Husayn.’ [Ibn Ziyad] said: ‘Did Allah not kill ‘Ali bin al-Husayn?!’ [At this, Imam al-Sajjad] remained silent. So Ibn Ziyad said to him: ‘Why are you not speaking?’ [Al-Sajjad] said: ‘I had a brother who was also called ‘Ali.

The people killed him.’ Ibn Ziyad said: ‘Allah has indeed killed him.’ [Again] he remained quiet. So Ibn Ziyad said: ‘Why are you not speaking?’ He said: ‘Allah takes the souls at the time of their death.’[^15] ‘No soul may die except with Allah’s leave.’[^16] Ibn Ziyad said: ‘By Allah, you are one of them [i.e. the rebellious].’ [Then he said to Mariyy bin Ma’adh al-Ahmari:] ‘Woe onto you! Kill him.’ His aunt, Zainab, clung on to him and said: ‘O Ibn Ziyad! You have had enough of our blood!

Have you still not quenched your thirst by our blood?! Is there anyone you have left among us?!’ Then she embraced [al-Sajjad] and said: ‘I beseech you by Allah -if you are a believer- that if you [intend to] kill him, then kill me with him.’ ‘Ali [bin al-Husayn] called on him: ‘If you have a bond of kinship with them [i.e. these women], then ask a pious man to accompany them in a manner worthy of Islam.’ Ibn Ziyad looked at them and said: ‘How wonderful is family relationship!

By Allah, she likes me to kill her with him, if I were to kill him. Leave the boy.’[^17],[^18] ‘Ubaidullah bin Ziyad then stuck the head of al-Husayn [(as) on a spear] and ordered it to be taken round [the city of] Kufah.”[^19] The Stand of ‘Abdullah bin ‘Afif [After the gathering was over], it was announced: “Offer your prayers in congregation.” So people gathered in the great mosque [of Kufah].