We were in Medina when the people of Mecca wrote to the people of Medina about what had taken place with Wakiʿ, saying, “If he arrives, do not rely on the governor—stone him until he is dead.”
He said: They presented the matter to me, and we learned what they were plotting, so we dispatched a courier to Wakiʿ instructing him not to enter Medina but to continue by way of al-Rabadhah. He had already passed the fork where the two roads diverge, but when the courier reached him he turned back and went on to Kufah.
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAdī reports, in the biographical entry of ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād, that it was he who issued the legal opinion in Mecca that Wakiʿ should be killed.
Ibn ʿAdī also said: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Marwazī informed us—in a letter he sent to me—stating:
“My father, ʿĪsā ibn Muḥammad, narrated to us; he said: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muṣʿab narrated to us; Qutaybah narrated to us; Wakiʿ narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid narrated…,” and he set out the ḥadith in full.
Qutaybah then added: “Wakiʿ related this narration in Mecca the year Hārūn al-Rashīd performed the ḥajj. They brought him before the caliph, whereupon al-Rashīd summoned Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn Abī Rawwād.
“As for ʿAbd al-Majīd, he said, ‘He must be put to death, for none transmits this except one whose heart harbors ill-will toward the Prophet ﷺ.’
“Sufyān said, ‘He is not to be killed. The man merely heard a ḥadith and conveyed it. Medina is exceedingly hot; when the Prophet ﷺ passed away he was left for two nights because the people were occupied with setting the affairs of the ummah in order and Quraysh and the Anṣār were at odds. It was in that interval that change set in.’”
Qutaybah continued: “Whenever Wakiʿ mentioned what ʿAbd al-Majīd had done, he would say, ‘That man is ignorant; he heard a ḥadith without understanding its import and so spoke as he did.’ (1)
I say: Even supposing he failed to grasp the proper interpretation of the ḥadith as you claim, have you no reason or piety? Have you not heard the statement of Imām ʿAlī: ‘Speak to the people in terms they can understand…’