The one you are troubling is full of excellences.

The one you are troubling is full of excellences.” Mughaira stopped grants to Hujr ibn Adi and his friends. Hujr used to say: “O servant of God! You have stopped our grants without any cause. You do not have any right to do so. You should start paying us our grants.” When Mughaira died, Ziyad ibn Uqbah became the governor of Kufa. Ziyad followed the footsteps of Muawiyah and Mughaira. He used to trouble Amirul Momineen (a). Hujr ibn Adi always defended the right.

Ziyad imprisoned Hujr ibn Adi and twelve of his companions. He convicted them of certain crime and brought in four witnesses to sign the testimony. Those who testified against Hujr ibn Adi included Talha ibn Ubaidullah’s two sons – Ishaq and Moosa, Zubair’s son Manzar and Imad ibn Uqbah ibn Abi Muit. Ziyad handed the prisoners to Wail ibn Hujr al-Hadhrami and Kathir ibn Shahab and sent them to Syria. Both the trusted agents of Ziyad took the prisoners and set out for Syria.

They reached a place called Gharrain. Ziyad had given a letter to Wail addressed to Muawiyah. The caravan reached a place called Marj Uzra in the outskirts of Syria and halted there. Wail and Kathir went to Muawiyah and handed Ziyad’s letter to him. Ziyad had written that Hujr ibn Adi and his companions were the severest enemies of Muawiyah and they loved Abu Turab very much. They did not obey any orders of the government. They were making the land of Kufa bitter for Muawiyah.

Hence it was upto him to punish them so that others could learn a lesson from them. After that, Wail gave the letter of Shurai ibn Hani to Muawiyah. It was written therein: I have come to know that Ziyad has also mentioned my testimony in his statement of case. My opinion regarding Hujr is that he is a person who offers prayers, pays charity, performs Hajj and Umrah. He enjoins good and stops others from evil. It is prohibited for you to take his life or wealth.

The followers of Imam ‘Ali (a) arrested by Ziyad were: • Hujr ibn Adi Kindi • Arqam ibn Abdullah Kindi • Shareek ibn Shadad Hadhrami • Saifi ibn Faseel Shaibani • Qabisa ibn Sanee Abasi • Karim ibn Afif Khathami • Aasim ibn Auf Bajali • Waraqa ibn Sami Bajali • Kadam ibn Hassan Unzi • Abdur Rahman ibn Hassan ibn Hassan Unzi • Muhrir ibn Shahab Tamimi • Abdullah ibn Hauya Saadi The above mentioned twelve persons were arrested first and then two more persons viz.

Utbah ibn Akhmis ibn Saad ibn Bakr and Saad ibn Namran Hamadani were also arrested and sent to Syria.