Will you kill a young man, who is sick and did not fight?

Will you kill a young man, who is sick and did not fight?’ ‘Umar bin Sa’d then arrived and said: ‘Do not disturb these women nor this sick man.” Al-Irshad (pg.242) and al-Tadhkirah (pg.256&258; Najaf edition) have narrated this in similar vein. [^5]: Al-Tabari: Marqa’ bin Thumamah al-Asadi had spread his arrows on the ground and fighting while he was kneeling. A number of his clansmen came and said to him: “You are safe. Come over to us.” So he went to them.

When ‘Umar bin Sa’d returned to Ibn Ziyad with the army and informed him, among other things, of the case of Marqa’, Ibn Ziyad deported him to al-Zarah (5:454). Al-Zarah is a place in Oman, known for its severe heat. Those sentenced to deportation were being sent to this place. We mentioned earlier how Dahhak bin ‘Abdullah al-Mushriqi al-Hamdani left [the battlefield] with the permission of the Imam (as), in accordance with the conditions he had put before him.

[These were those who left the Imam (as) for one reason or the other]. But as for those who were saved from being killed [on the day of ‘Ashura’], Abu Mikhnaf says: “‘Ali bin al-Husayn was considered very young [by the enemy] (5:468). Hasan bin al-Hasan bin ‘Ali and ‘Umar bin al-Hasan bin ‘Ali were [also] considered to be very young. So they were spared and were not killed (5:469). As for ‘Abdullah bin al-Hasan, he was also killed (5:468).

According to Abu al-Faraj in al-Maqatil (pg.79; Najaf edition): “Hasan bin al-Hasan bin ‘Ali was covered with wounds and was thus carried [away from the battlefield].” [^6]: Al-Tabari (5:415): Later Ishaq bin Haiwah al-Hadhrami was afflicted by leprosy. I [have also] heard that during another battle after this, Ahbash bin Mirthad al-Hadhrami was standing when an arrow, whose thrower was not known, came and splitted his heart, leaving him dead.

Ibn Sa’d committed this atrocity because of the order of Ibn Ziyad in his letter to ‘Umar: “If al-Husayn is killed, then make the horses trample his chest and back.

For he is disobedient and an opponent; an oppressor and one who is set to sever [all] relations; I do not believe that this action [of trampling the body] after death does any harm [to the dead], but I have promised myself that I would do this to him, if I killed him!” The trampling [of the body of al-Husayn (as)] has been reported also in al-Maqatil (pg.79) of Abu al-Faraj, Muruj al-Dhahab (3:72) of al-Mas’udi, al-Irshad (pg.242; Najaf edition) of al-Mufid and al-Tadhkirah (pg.254) of Sibt bin al-Jawzi.