The First Visitor of Imam Husayn (A.S.) from Kufah

By: Shaikh Muhammad Hadi al-Yusufi al-Gharawi
[After the martyrdom of al-Husayn] ‘Ubaidullah bin Ziyad inquired about the noblemen of Kufah. He did not see ‘Ubaidullah bin al-Hurr [al-Ju’fi]. After a couple of days, Ibn Hurr came to Ibn Ziyad. So he asked: “Where were you, O son of Hurr?”
He replied: “I was sick.”
[Ibn Ziyad] said: “Sick in soul or in body?!”
He said: “As for my heart, it has not ailed. With regard to my body, Allah has granted me soundness in health!”
Ibn Ziyad said to him: “You are a liar. Rather you were with our enemy.”
He said: “If I was with your enemy, it would have been known. The place of someone like me is never unknown.”
Ibn Ziyad [then] became inattentive of him for a moment. So Ibn Hurr [availed the opportunity and] took his way out and mounted his horse. [After sometime] Ibn Ziyad said: “Where is Ibn al-Hurr?”
“He has just left”, the people answered.
Ibn Ziyad said: “Get him for me.”
So [his] guards went after him and said to him: “The governor is calling you!”
[Ibn al-Hurr] drove his horse and then said: “Tell him that, by Allah, I will never submit to his obedience again!”
Then he left [Kufah] and went to Karbala’. He recited in this regard: A treacherous governor, son of a traitor says: why did you not fight the martyr, son of Fatimah?
I regret that I did not help him, a soul which is not rightly directed [always] regrets.
Since I was not among his supporters, I am in a grief that will not part me!
May Allah make the souls -that determinedly helped him- to drink from the everlasting shower [of his mercy].
[Now] that I am standing by their graves and places, I am torn apart from within and my eyes are tearful.
By my life, they were valiant amidst the tumult, hurrying towards the battle and defending [al-Husayn] like lions.
[Now] that they have been killed, every pious soul on the earth has become despondent.
None has seen [a people] better than them, at death [they were] like chiefs and blooming flowers.
[O Ibn Ziyad] you kill them unjustly and then expect our love; leave this plan which is not favourable for us.
By my life, you have rubbed our nose in the ground by killing them, what a large number of man and woman from us will take revenge from you.
Many a time I intend to advance with an army against a group which has unjustly deviated from the truth.
So restrain yourselves or else I will drive you away with the support of an army, severer than the [forces] of the Dailamites.1,2
1. Al-Tabari (5:469): “[Abu Mikhnaf says:] ‘Abd al-Rahman bin Jundab al-Azdi narrated to me that…”
2. Al-Tabari: The reason Ibn al-Hurr brings in the example of the Dailamites is because of the valour they exhibited during the battles of resistance, after the fall of the Sasanid dynasty. He was a follower of ‘Uthman. When [‘Uthman] was assassinated, Ibn al-Hurr left Kufah and went to Mu’awiyah. He remained there until the [martyrdom] of ‘Ali (as) (5:128). Thereafter, he returned to Kufah. When Hujr [bin ‘Adiyy] was arrested, Ibn al-Hurr wished that if only five to ten men had helped him, he could have saved Hujr and his companions (5:271). When al-Husayn (as) invited him to join him, he said: “By Allah, I only left Kufah out of dislike that you may enter it while I am there.” Al-Husayn (as) said: “If you are not [intending] to help us, then [at least] fear Allah in that you should be among those who fight us; for by Allah, one who hears our call [for help] but does not come to our help, is, indeed, going to perish” (5:407). After the death of Yazid and the flight of Ibn Ziyad and during the uprising of Mukhtar, Ibn al-Hurr went to Madain with 700 horsemen, collecting money [from the people]. Mukhtar detained his wife in Kufah and told her: “I am going to kill his companions” (5:129). Ibn al-Hurr later joined Mus’ab bin al-Zubair and fought against Mukhtar (5:105). Ibn al-Hurr is the one who suggested to Mus’ab, after Mukhtar was killed, to kill the non-Arabs among [Mukhtar’s] followers and leave the Arabs. And Mus’ab did so (5:116). Then, Mus’ab feared him for his own life, so he imprisoned him. A group from the Madhhij interceded with him on his behalf, so he freed him. Thereafter, [Ibn al-Hurr] rose against him (5:131). He later joined ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwan. The latter sent him to Kufah at a time when [the city] was under the governer of Ibn al-Zubair. So [Ibn al-Hurr] fought him in the year 68 H and killed him (5:135). We made some mention of his life when giving the account of his meeting with the Imam (as) at Qasr Bani Muqatil, on the way to Karbala’.

Final Remarks
With the mercy of Allah, the Most High, we have come to the end of the reports about Imam al-Husayn (as) which have appeared in Tarikh al-Tabari, and which [Tabari narrated] on the authority of Hisham al-Kalbi from Abu Mikhnaf, who in turn related [these reports] from his [chain of] narrators. We also edited the reports, bringing in our comments and remarks. The primary source for our comments happened to be, again, Tarikh al-Tabari, except for the information that we could not find in it.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.