Several accounts record Zayn al-Abidin's deep sorrow over the massacre. It is said that for thirty-four years, he would weep when food was placed before him. One day a servant said to him, "O son of Allah’s Messenger! Is it not time for your sorrow to come to an end?" He replied, "Oh person you did not do justice by saying this! Jacob the prophet had twelve sons, and Allah made one of them disappear". "His eyes turned white from constant weeping, his head turned grey out of sorrow, and his back became bent in the gloom" (Quran, 12:84), though his son was alive in this world. But I watched while my father, my brother, my uncle, and seventeen members of my family were slaughtered all around me. How should my sorrow come to an end?"