in which there is the slightest relief, so that I may set you free with my own hand.
He then stepped back and said to the executioner, “Advance.” The man would strike me twice and move aside, and all the while he kept repeating, “Lay it on—may Allah sever your hand!”
My senses left me, and when I came to, the shackles had already been removed.
One of those present said to me, “We flung you face-down, put a reed mat (1) on your back, and trampled you!”
My father (2) said, “I was not aware of any of that. They brought me sawiq and told me, ‘Drink it and vomit,’ but I replied, ‘I will not break my fast.’ ”
I was then taken to the residence of Ishaq b. Ibrahim. The noon prayer had arrived, so Ibn Samaʿah stepped forward and led it. When he had finished, he said to me, “You prayed while blood was flowing down your garment?”
I answered, “Umar prayed while his wound was gushing blood. (3)”
Salih said: He was then released and returned home.
His time in prison (4)—from the moment he was seized until he was beaten and set free—lasted twenty-eight months.
One of the two men who had been with him later told me, “Nephew, may Allah have mercy on Abu ʿAbdillah. By Allah, I have never seen anyone like him. Whenever food was brought to us I would say, ‘Abu ʿAbdillah, you are fasting, and you are in a place of severe hardship (5)… Indeed—
(1) Pronounced with a kasra on the letter r and an open, doubled y: it denotes a woven mat and is of Persian origin.
(2) The words placed between brackets are taken from Tarikh al-Islam; they are the statement of Salih, the son of Imam Ahmad.
(3) Malik, al-Muwatta, no. 79, “Action Concerning One Overcome by Bleeding from a Wound or Nosebleed,” transmitted through Hisham ibn Urwa from his father: al-Miswar ibn Makhrama reported that he entered upon Umar ibn al-Khattab on the night he was stabbed, woke him for the dawn prayer. Umar said, “Yes—and whoever abandons the prayer has no share in Islam.” He then performed the prayer while his wound was gushing blood.
(4) The material enclosed in brackets is taken from Tarikh al-Islam.
(5) Thus in the base manuscript; however, Tarikh al-Islam and Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad, p. 407, read taqiyya (dissimulation), while al-Hilya, 9/203, has masghaba (extreme hunger).
Shaykh Ahmad Shakir comments: Taqiyya is permissible only for the weak who fear they may not remain firm upon the truth and who are not taken as exemplars; such persons may avail themselves of the concession. As for the resolute leaders and guiding imams, they opt for the stricter course, endure harm, and remain steadfast, whatever they encounter in the path of Allah. Had they resorted to taqiyya and accepted the dispensation, the people who follow them would have gone astray, imitating them without realizing that it was an instance of dissimulation.