Al-Hurr sought al-Husayn's permission to address the people, and permission was granted to him. As loudly as he could, al-Hurr called out to the Kufians thus:
“O people of Kufa! A foolish and a bad example for others have you surely set when you invited him to come to you then grieved him and surrounded him from all directions, forbidding him from going anywhere in Allah's spacious land so that he and his family might be safe, rendering him like a captive in your hands, unable to help himself.
You have prohibited him, his ladies, his children, and his companions from the flowing water of the Euphrates of which the Jews, the Christians, and the Zoroastrians drink and wherein black swine and dogs wade! Look and see how thirst has subdued them! Evil is the way whereby you have succeeded Muhammad (S) in treating his progeny! May Allah never permit you to drink on the Day of Thirst!”
His own men now started shooting him with arrows, so he was forced to retreat till he stood face-to-face with Imam Husayn (‘a).33
“O people of Kufa! A foolish and a bad example for others have you surely set when you invited him to come to you then grieved him and surrounded him from all directions, forbidding him from going anywhere in Allah's spacious land so that he and his family might be safe, rendering him like a captive in your hands, unable to help himself.
You have prohibited him, his ladies, his children, and his companions from the flowing water of the Euphrates of which the Jews, the Christians, and the Zoroastrians drink and wherein black swine and dogs wade! Look and see how thirst has subdued them! Evil is the way whereby you have succeeded Muhammad (S) in treating his progeny! May Allah never permit you to drink on the Day of Thirst!”
His own men now started shooting him with arrows, so he was forced to retreat till he stood face-to-face with Imam Husayn (‘a).33
Notes:
33. Ibn al-Athir, Vol. 4, p. 27.