to him, “By my kinship to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—I shall certainly flog you, unless you say what I say.”

Then he turned to one of the executioners and ordered, “Take him!” The man seized him, and when the first lash landed he said, “In the name of Allah.”

When the second lash landed he said, “There is no might nor power except with Allah.”

When the third landed he declared, “The Qur’an is the speech of Allah, uncreated.”

When the fourth landed he recited, “Say: Nothing will befall us except what Allah has decreed for us” (al-Tawbah 9:51).

He was struck a total of twenty-nine lashes.

His drawstring was only a strip torn from a garment; it snapped and his trousers dropped to his pubic area. I thought to myself, “Any moment now he will be exposed.” He cast his eyes toward the sky and moved his lips, and in the blink of an eye the trousers stayed up and did not fall.

Seven days later I visited him and said, “Abu ʿAbd Allah, I saw your trousers slip, you lifted your gaze to the sky—what did you say?”

He replied, “I said: ‘O Allah, I ask You by the Name with which You filled the Throne. If You know that I am upon the truth, do not allow my covering to be torn away.’”

This report is objectionable; I fear that Dāwūd may have fabricated it.

Jaʿfar b. Aḥmad b. Fāris al-Iṣbahānī said: Aḥmad b. Abī ʿUbayd Allah narrated to us; he said:

Aḥmad b. al-Faraj said: “I was present when Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was flogged. Abū al-Dann stepped forward and struck him about thirteen lashes, and blood flowed from his shoulders. He was wearing trousers whose cord snapped, so they slipped down.

“I noticed him moving his lips, whereupon the trousers returned to their place. I asked him about it and he said, ‘My God and Master, You have put me in this position—will You disgrace me before the whole of creation!’”

This account as well is not authentic.

Moreover, the author of al-Ḥilyah has recorded here some crude fables that one is ashamed even to recount. (1)