Section: His Self-Respect and Fearless Proclamation of the Truth

Salām ibn Miskīn related: ʿImrān ibn ʿAbd Allāh told us:
“There were some thirty-odd thousand of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib’s stipend sitting for him in the public treasury. He was repeatedly invited to come and take it, but he always refused, saying, ‘I have no need of it until Allah judges between me and the Banū Marwān.’⦗1⦘

Hammād ibn Salamah reported: ʿAlī ibn Zayd informed us that it was said to Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ‘Why is it that al-Ḥajjāj neither summons you, nor disturbs you, nor harms you?’
He replied, ‘By Allah, I do not know—except that one day he entered the mosque with his father and performed a prayer in which he did not complete its bowing or its prostration, so I scooped up a handful of pebbles and pelted him with them. He later claimed that al-Ḥajjāj said, “From that day on I have prayed properly.”’⦗2⦘

In the Tabaqāt of Ibn Saʿd⦗3⦘ it is recorded: Kathīr ibn Hishām told us—Jaʿfar ibn Burqān narrated to us—Maymūn transmitted—and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar also informed us—Abū al-Malīḥ narrated from Maymūn ibn Mihrān, who said:
‘When ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān arrived in Medina, the noonday nap eluded him, so he awoke and said to his chamberlain, “Go and see whether any of our younger men are in the mosque.”
The chamberlain went out and found Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib seated in his study-circle. He stood where Saʿīd could see him, winked at him, and gestured with his finger, then turned away, but Saʿīd did not move.
He said, “It seems he did not notice.”
So he came back, approached him, winked again, and said, “Did you not see me signalling to you?”
Saʿīd asked, “And what do you want?”
He replied, “Respond to the Commander of the Believers.”
Saʿīd asked, “Did he send you to me?”
“No,” the chamberlain said, “but he told me, ‘Look for some of our younger men,’ and I saw no one more suitable than you.”
Saʿīd answered, “Go back and tell him that I am not one of his younger men.”
The chamberlain left muttering, “I think this old man is mad.”
He reported the incident to ʿAbd al-Malik, who said, “That is Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib—leave him alone.”’