Khurasan, where they captured spoils. Ziyād therefore wrote to him:

“To proceed: the Commander of the Believers has written to me instructing me to reserve for him the yellow and the white—do not distribute any gold or silver among the people.”

Al-Ḥakam wrote back to him: “I swear by Allah, were the heavens and the earth sewn up against a servant, yet he feared Allah, He would grant him a way out. Peace.” (1)

He then said to the people, “Come in the morning for your shares of the booty and divide it.”

It is related that ʿUmar looked at al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAmr, who had dyed his beard a yellowish colour, and remarked, “This is the dye of faith.” (2)

Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān reported—his father narrating from Abū Ḥājib—who said:

“I was with al-Ḥakam al-Ghifārī when a messenger from ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—arrived and said, ‘The Commander of the Believers says: You are the one most entitled to aid us.’

He replied, ‘I heard my intimate friend, Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, say: “When affairs reach such a state, take a sword made of wood.”’ (3)

Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī transmitted—on the authority of Hishām, from al-Ḥasan—who said:

“Ziyād dispatched al-Ḥakam, and they acquired abundant spoils. Ziyād then wrote: ‘The Commander of the Believers has ordered that the yellow and the white be set aside for him.’ Al-Ḥakam replied, ‘I found the Book of Allah before the letter of the Commander of the Believers.’ He then ordered a crier to announce: ‘Come in the morning for your shares of the booty,’ and he distributed it among them.”