Maymūn ibn Mihrān said, “Shurayḥ kept out of sight during the civil strife—meaning the revolt of Ibn al-Zubayr—for nine years, and no one heard any news of him. When people later said to him, ‘You have come through safely,’ he replied, ‘But what of the pull of hawā (personal desire)?’
It was also said that Shurayḥ was an outstanding augurer; he would observe the flight of birds and his intuitions were often accurate (2).
Verses are attributed to Shurayḥ:
“I have seen men strike their wives—
my right hand went limp the moment I struck Zaynab.
Zaynab is a sun, while women are but stars;
when she rises, not a single star remains shining.” (3)
Al-Ashʿath reported that Shurayḥ lived one hundred and ten years. Abū Nuʿaym said he lived one hundred and eight years. Abū Nuʿaym, al-Madāʾinī, and al-Haytham held that he died in 78 AH (4), whereas Khalīfah (5) and Ibn Numayr said he died in 80 AH. It was also said that he asked to be relieved of the judgeship one year before his death—may Allah, Most High, have mercy on him (6).
(1) See Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat al-kubra, vol. 6, p. 141; Wakīʿ, Akhbar al-qudat, vol. 2, pp. 216, 218 and 370.
(2) Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat, vol. 6, p. 132; Akhbar al-qudat, vol. 2, p. 211.
(3) The two verses are recorded in Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, al-ʿIqd al-farid, vol. 6, p. 141, and Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-aʿyan, vol. 2, p. 462. Wakīʿ quotes only the first line in Akhbar al-qudat, vol. 2, p. 205, and Ibn Saʿd does the same in al-Tabaqat, vol. 6, p. 143. Al-ʿIqd and Ibn Khallikan add a third line:
“A-aḍribu-hā min ghayri dhanbin atat bihi / fa-mā l-ʿadlu minnī ḍarbu man laysa mudhniban”
(‘Shall I strike her when she has done no wrong? It is no justice on my part to beat one who is without guilt.’)
Ibn ʿAsakir, vol. 8, p. 30, continues: “The judge said that Shurayh has borrowed this line from al-Nabigha’s panegyric on al-Nuʿman b. al-Mundhir, which begins:
“A-lam tara anna Allāha aʿṭāka sūratan / tarā kulla malik dūnahā yatadhabdhabu
fa-innaka shamsun wa-l-mulūku kawākibun / idhā ṭalaʿta lam yabdu minhunnā kawkab”
(‘Do you not see that God has given you such stature that every other king quails beneath it? You are the sun and the kings are but stars: when you rise, no star among them remains visible.’)
(4) See al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh, vol. 4, p. 229; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat, vol. 6, p. 145.
(5) Al-Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 330.
(6) See Akhbar al-qudat, vol. 2, p. 392.