let the meeting between us be at whichever place you wish.

Some of them said, “We do not want to be left with a mere trace once the man himself is gone (1).” Another said, “You have reached safety (2) and earned the governor’s reward, so do not lose hold of him.” A third exclaimed, “He will grant you what he granted the monk—woe to you! Have you learned no lesson from the lion?”

They looked at Saʿīd: tears brimmed in his eyes, his hair was disheveled, his complexion dusty. Since the day they had met and accompanied him, he had neither eaten nor drunk nor laughed. They said, “O best of the people of the earth, would that we had never known you and never been sent after you! Woe to us—a long, crushing woe! How sorely we have been tried because of you! Plead our excuse before our Creator on the Day of the Great Gathering, for He is the Supreme Judge, the Just One who never wrongs.”

He answered, “How readily I excuse you, and how content I am with what Allah’s prior knowledge has decreed for me.”

When the weeping and replies had ceased, his guarantor said, “I implore you by Allah—grant us some of your supplications and words of counsel, for we shall never meet the like of you again.” Saʿīd did so, and they let him be. He washed his head, his woolen tunic, and his cloak, while they remained around him the whole night, crying out in grief and distress.

When the first light of dawn broke, Saʿīd came to them and knocked on the door. They came down, wept with him, and then escorted him to al-Ḥajjāj, another man walking beside him, and the two entered.

Al-Ḥajjāj asked, “Have you brought me Saʿīd ibn Jubayr?”

They replied (3), “Yes, and we have witnessed astonishing things from him.”

He turned his face away from them and commanded, “Bring him in to me.”

The scout came out and said to Saʿīd (4), “I entrust you to Allah, and I send you peace.”

Saʿīd was brought in. Al-Ḥajjāj asked, “What is your name?”

He replied, “Saʿīd ibn Jubayr.”

Al-Ḥajjāj said, “No, you are Shaqiyy ibn Kusayr.”

Saʿīd retorted, “My mother knew my name better than you do.”

Al-Ḥajjāj said, “You are wretched, and so is your mother.”

Saʿīd replied, “Knowledge of the unseen belongs to One other than you (5).”

Al-Ḥajjāj threatened, “I shall exchange your worldly life for a blazing Fire.”

Saʿīd responded, “If I knew that that …”