128 – Muḥammad related to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated; Hishām ibn Ḥassān transmitted from Wāṣil, the freedman of Abū ʿUyayna, from ʿAmr, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Maḥmūd al-Maʿūlī, who said:

I was sitting with Ibn ʿAbbās when a group of men arrived and said, “We set out for the ḥajj, and one of our companions was with us. When we reached Dhū al-Ṣifāḥ he died, so we prepared his body, went off, dug a grave, and shaped the recess—the laḥd—for him. Once the recess was finished, we found a black serpent completely filling it, so we left that spot and dug another grave for him. When its recess was finished, we again found a black serpent completely filling it. We abandoned that one as well and have now come to you.”

Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “That is the shackle in which he is being held. Go and bury him in part of that very place, for by Him in whose hand is my soul, if you were to excavate the whole earth you would still find it there.”

So we went back and buried him. When we returned, we brought some belongings of his that had been with us to his family. We asked his wife, “What work did your husband do?” She answered, “He used to sell grain. Each day he would take from it the amount his family needed for food, then he would cut an equivalent amount of straw and mix it into the grain.”