When Mu'awiyah's companions at Siffin gained dominance over the Commander of the Faithful's companions and seized control of the Euphrates crossing, preventing them from taking water, he said: They are seeking morsels of war from you. So now either submit your heads in humiliation and the lowliness and contempt of your position, or quench the thirst of swords with blood and quench your thirst with water. To be subdued by them is death while alive, and to overcome and die is equal to living. Mu'awiyah wanders with a small band of lost, wayward people, and events have left them in darkness, until they have made their chests targets for (the arrows of) death.