and said to me, “Come, let us leave this place, for I cannot trust that he will not dispatch someone to throw ropes round our necks—he would not care in the least (1).”

Yūsuf ibn Asbāṭ relates: I heard Sufyān say, “I have never seen renunciation rarer in anything than in leadership. You will see a man abstain from food, drink, wealth, and clothes, yet if his leadership is challenged he will fight tooth and nail for it and turn hostile (2).”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khubayq narrated: ʿUbayd ibn Jannād told us, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Muslim told us, saying:
“When al-Mahdī succeeded to the caliphate he summoned Sufyān. When Sufyān entered, the caliph removed his signet ring, tossed it to him and said, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh! This is my ring—govern this ummah by the Book and the Sunnah.’

“Sufyān took the ring in his hand and said, ‘Do you permit me to speak, Commander of the Believers?’

“I asked ʿAṭāʾ, ‘Did he actually address him as Commander of the Believers?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’

“Sufyān then said, ‘May I speak on condition that I am safe?’

“The caliph answered, ‘Yes.’

“Sufyān said, ‘Then do not send for me until I come to you, and do not give me anything until I ask you for it.’

“The caliph grew angry and was about to act against him, but his secretary said, ‘Did you not grant him safety?’

“He responded, ‘Indeed I did.’

“When Sufyān left, his companions crowded around him saying, ‘What restrained you, when he has ordered you to govern the ummah by the Book and the Sunnah?’

“Sufyān judged their intellects to be paltry and fled to Basra.

It is also reported from Sufyān that he said, “I do not fear their insults; what I fear is their honor, for then I would no longer see their wrongs as wrongs (3). I know no likeness for rulers except the proverb uttered on the tongue of the fox.

“I have tallied for the dog more than seventy stratagems (4), and none is better than that I do not see the dog and the dog does not see me.”

Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī said: I heard Sufyān say, “I was ushered in to Abū…"