Awareness of Our Master Zayn Al-‘Ābidīn (may his glory be exalted) of Their Reality and Abandonment)

From Ḥudhaym ibn Sharīk Al-Asadī, our Master Zayn Al-‘Ābidīn (may his glory be exalted) said: "O people, I adjure you by Allah, do you know that you wrote to my father, deceived him, gave him the covenant, the solemn promise, and the pledge of allegiance, then you fought him and abandoned him? So, woe to what you have put forth for yourselves, and how evil is your opinion! With what eye will you look at the Messenger of Allah when he says to you: 'You killed my progeny and violated my sanctity, so you are not part of my nation'?" He said: Then the voices of the people rose with weeping, and some called out to others, "You have perished and you do not know." Then ‘Alī ibn Al-Ḥusayn said: "May Allah have mercy on the man who accepts my advice and preserves my counsel concerning Allah, His Messenger and His Household, for we have in the Messenger of Allah a good example." So, they all said: "We are all, O son of the Messenger of Allah, hearing, obeying, and preserving your trust, neither abstaining from you nor turning away from you. So, command us with your order, may Allah have mercy on you, for we are at war with your enemy, at peace with your friends, and we will take revenge for you and for ourselves from those who wronged you and wronged us." Then ‘Alī ibn Al-Ḥusayn said: "Far from it, O treacherous, scheming people! A barrier has been placed between you and the desires of your souls. Do you want to come to me as you came to my fathers before? No, by the Lord of the swift-moving camels to Minā, for the wound has not yet healed! My father was killed yesterday, and his Household with him. I have not forgotten the grief of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and his family) and the grief of my father and the sons of my father and my grandfather. Its affliction chokes my throat, its bitterness is between my windpipe and gullet, and its agony flows over the expanse of my chest. My only request is that you be neither for us nor against us."¹