O’ Kúfah, as though I see you being drawn like the tanned leather of `Uká~í (1) in the market, you are being scraped by calamities and being ridden by severe troubles. I certainly (2) know that if any tyrant intends evil for you Alláh will afflict him with worry and fling him with a killer (set someone on him to kill him).
(1). During pre-Islamic days a market used to be organised every year near Mecca. Its name was `Ukáz where mostly hides were traded as a result of which leather was attributed to it. Besides sale and purchase literary meetings were also arranged and Arabs used to attract admiration by reciting their works. After Islam, because of the better congregation in the shape of Hajj this market went down.
(2). This prophecy of Amír al-mu’minín was fulfilled word by word and the world saw how the people who had committed tyranny and oppression on the strength of their masterly power had to face tragic end and what ways of their destruction were engendered by their blood-shedding and homicidal activities. Consequently, the end of Ziyád ibn Abíh (son of unknown father) was that when he intended to deliver a speech for vilification of Amír al-mu’minín suddenly paralysis overtook him and he could not get out of his bed thereafter. The end of the bloodshed perpetrated by `Ubaydulláh ibn Ziyád was that he fell a prey to leprosy and eventually blood thirsty swords put him to death. The ferocity of al-Hajjáj ibn Yúsuf ath-Thaqafí drove him to the fate that snakes cropped up in his stomach as a result of which he died after severe pain. `Umar ibn Hubayrah al-Fazárí died of leucoderma. Khálid ibn `Abdilláh al-Qasrí suffered the hardships of prison and was killed in a very bad way. Mus`ab ibn az-Zubayr and Yazíd ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abí Sufrah were also killed by swords.