Three Kharijites' pact to kill Mu'awiya, Amr and Habib ibn Maslama

Ibn Abd al-Hakam reports from al-Zuhri that three Iraqis made a pact at the Ka'ba to kill Mu'awiya, Amr ibn al-As and Habib ibn Maslama, and that after Mu'awiya had been acknowledged caliph they came to Iliya. ¹

They asked some Syrians in the mosque when they might find the commander of the faithful alone, claiming they had a grievance over their stipends. When Mu'awiya came out for the dawn prayer and prostrated, one of them stabbed him in the buttock with a dagger; Mu'awiya withdrew and told the people to finish their prayer. The physician said there was no danger unless the dagger was poisoned; the dagger was licked and found not to be poisoned. ²

Then Kharija ibn Hudhafa came out from Mu'awiya to reassure the people, and one of the two remaining Haruris fell on him, taking him for Amr ibn al-As, and killed him with his sword. The third attacked the people in the mosque; Sa'id ibn Malik ibn Shihab stood against him and killed him, but lost his left eye to the Haruri's blow, bled heavily and died. ²

A man of Kalb came in and beheaded the man who had stabbed Mu'awiya; he was jailed and released when found innocent. Kharija's killer was handed to his kinsmen of Banu Adi ibn Ka'b, who cut off his hands and feet and later killed him with Mu'awiya's permission. ³

Elsewhere Ibn Abd al-Hakam says the Haruri who killed Kharija came to Egypt to kill Amr, who had stayed at home with a stomach complaint, and that the Haruri said, "I wanted Amr, and God wanted Kharija." He adds: "It has also been said that Kharija was killed in Syria." ¹ This version differs from the better-known one in which Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) is among the targets.