before al-Maʾmūn, the Caliph kept saying over and over, “O sāʿī (plaintiff)!”—that is, “O murāfiʿ (litigant).”

Al-Ḥārith replied, “By Allah, I am no sāʿī. I was only summoned; I listened and obeyed. Then I was questioned about a matter and asked three times to be excused, but was not excused, so the truth was dearer to me than anything else.”

Al-Maʾmūn said, “This is a man who wants a banner raised for him in his own land. Take him away.”

Aḥmad al-Muʾaddib related: Al-Maʾmūn departed and deported al-Ḥārith in the year 217 AH. Al-Ḥārith’s wife also left, performed the pilgrimage, and traveled on to Iraq.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam said: Ibn Abī Duʾād once said to me, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, your al-Ḥārith has, for Allah’s sake, taken the stand of the prophets.” Whenever Ibn Abī Duʾād mentioned him, he venerated him greatly.

Abū Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī said: Al-Ḥārith stayed in Baghdad for sixteen years, and al-Wāthiq set him free in the last days of his reign, whereupon he returned to Egypt.

Ibn Qudayd said: A document appointing him—meaning al-Ḥārith—to the judiciary reached him in 237 AH while he was in Alexandria. He refused, but his brethren persisted until he accepted. He then came to Egypt, took his seat for judgment, expelled the adherents of Abū Ḥanīfa and al-Shāfiʿī from the mosque, ordered their mats to be removed from the pillars, dismissed most of the muezzins from making the call to prayer, repaired the mosque’s roof, built the public fountain, presided over a case of liʿān (mutual imprecation) between a man and his wife, prohibited public announcements over funeral processions, administered the prescribed punishment for reviling ʿĀʾisha—the Mother of the Believers—and executed two sorcerers.

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jarawī narrated that a man who had greatly sinned against himself died and was seen in a dream. He said, “Allah forgave me because al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn attended my funeral; he interceded for me, and his intercession was accepted.”