I said: Such indeed is the case—if he is on campaign, his saddle is enough; if he is on pilgrimage, then his pack-saddle (1); and if he is dead, then the grave. So who, then, will ever build the house of his lasting abode?!

Later, when Yazid b. ʿAbd al-Malik became caliph, Yazid b. al-Muhallab seized Basra and styled himself “the Qaḥṭānī.” Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik marched out against him; the two armies met, and Yazid was killed in Ṣafar, 102 AH.

Ibn ʿAsakir and Ibn Khallikan have recorded the reports concerning Yazid b. al-Muhallab (2) in full detail.

Shuʿbah b. al-Ḥajjāj said: “I heard al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī speak about the turmoil stirred up by Yazid b. al-Muhallab: ‘This enemy of Allah—Yazid b. al-Muhallab—whenever any screeching caller summons them, they follow him.’”

Abu Bakr al-Hudhalī related that Yazid proclaimed, “I invite you to the Sunnah of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.” Thereupon al-Ḥasan ascended the pulpit and prayed, “O Allah, fell Yazid b. al-Muhallab with a fall that will make him a lesson! How strange—a profligate who reformed for but a fleeting moment, yet he violates sacred limits, eats whatever his comrades eat, and kills whomever they kill. Then, when something is withheld from him, he cries, ‘I am angry—so be angry!’ He plants a few reeds with rags fluttering atop them, and a motley rabble rallies to him, shouting, ‘I seek the Sunnah of ʿUmar!’ One of ʿUmar’s Sunnahs, however, is that irons be fastened to his ankles and that he be confined where ʿUmar confined him. (3)”

I add: He was killed at forty-nine years of age. He fought fiercely, even after his forces had collapsed, continually hurling himself into the thousands—not for jihad, but out of bravado and tribal zeal—until he met his death. We seek Allah’s refuge from such an ignorant, pre-Islamic kind of killing.