Asslamoalaikum, friends
Ibn Sa‘d’s First Letter to Ibn Ziyad
The letter of ‘Umar bin Sa‘d reached Ibn Ziyad and it read:

“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. When I reached the place where al-Husayn had stationed, I sent to him my messenger. He asked him what brought him and what he wants and he replied: ‘The people of this city wrote to me and their messengers came to me asking me to come, so I came. But if they [now] dislike me and [the position] now appears different to them from what their messengers brought to me, [then] I will go away from them.”

When the letter was read for Ibn Ziyad he recited the following verse:

Now when our claws cling to him, he hopes for delivery but there is no time to escape!
Ibn Ziyad’s Response to Ibn Sa‘d

He wrote to Ibn Sa‘d:

“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Your letter has reached me and I have understood what you mentioned. Offer al-Husayn [the opportunity] of him and all his companions pledging allegiance to Yazid bin Mu’awiyah. If he does that, we will then see what our judgement will be. That is all.”

When the letter reached Ibn Sa‘d, he said: “I had anticipated that Ibn Ziyad would not spare me [fighting al-Husayn].”10
Ibn Sa‘d’s Meeting With al-Husayn (as)

Al-Husayn (as) sent ‘Amru bin QurZah bin Ka’b al-Ansari11 to Ibn Sa‘d [saying]: “Meet me at night somewhere between the two armies.” So [at night] ‘Umar bin Sa‘d came out with around twenty horsemen and so did al-Husayn (as). When they met each other, al-Husayn (as) ordered his companions to move away from him and so did ‘Umar bin Sa‘d. Then they started talking and their conversation took long such that part of the night lapsed. Then each of the two returned to his camp with his companions.
People started making assumptions about what transpired between the two. They were presuming that al-Husayn (as) told ‘Umar bin Sa‘d: “Come along with me to Yazid bin Mu’awiyah and let us leave the two armies.” ‘Umar said: “In that case my house will be demolished.” “I will rebuild it for you”, he replied. So [Ibn Sa‘d] said: “My estate will be confiscated.” So he said: “In that case I shall give you what is better than that from my wealth in Hijaz.” But ‘Umar did not like that.

The people were busy talking about this and rumours spread without [them] having heard or known anything of the conversation [between the two].12

[Among other assumptions they made were that] they said: “Al-Husayn said: ‘Accept any three of my requests:

1. I should either return to where I came from [i.e. Madinah].

2. Or I should put my hand in the hand of Yazid bin Mu’awiyah and then he should decide on the matter [which is] between him and I.

3. Or take me to any of the border outposts of the Islamic land you like, so that I may become one of them, with the same rights and duties as them.’”13

#imamhussainshahadatkarbala
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#hazratimamhussainaleyhissalam
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