Along with Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad, he was one of seven believers who had defended the Raydan Mosque (near the Al-Hakim Mosque) successfully against twenty thousand attackers. Al-Muqtana was second in rank only to Hamza in the Druze movement and became known as the "left wing" to Hamza's "right wing". He was a prominent leading figure, especially after the disappearance of Al-Hakim,[1] and became the leader of the Druze in 1021, after the onset of persecutions by Al-Hakim's successor Ali az-Zahir, while Hamza went into hiding.