307 — Al-Husayn ibn Abd al-Rahmān related to me, on the authority of Abū Abd al-Rahmān al-Tā’ī, on the authority of Abd Allah ibn Ayyāsh, who said: Al-Abrash ibn al-Walīd al-Kalbī related to me. He said:

I entered upon Hishām ibn Abd al-Malik and asked him to grant me something, but he refused. I said, “Commander of the Faithful, I must have it, for we have already laid claim to it.”

“That only weakens your case,” he replied, “that you should lay claim to something you do not possess.”

I said, “Commander of the Faithful, I never imagined that I would reach out for anything you had to bestow without obtaining it.”

“Why is that?” he asked.

“Because I considered you worthy of granting it and myself deserving of receiving it from you,” I replied.

He said, “Al-Abrash, how many a man deems himself entitled to something for which he is unfit!”

I said, “Fie on you! By God, as far as I have known you, you do little good, and even that grudgingly. By God, we never obtain anything from you until we ask for it, and once it reaches us, you hold it over us. By God, we have never received any good from you.”

He said, “No, by God. Rather, we have found that no one is less grateful than a Bedouin.”

I replied, “By God, I dislike a man keeping count of what he gives.”

While we were thus engaged, his brother Saīd ibn Abd al-Malik entered. He said to me, “Enough, Abū Majāshi. Do not speak thus to the Commander of the Faithful.”

Hishām then asked, “Will you accept Abū Uthmān as arbiter between us?”

“Yes,” I replied.

Saīd asked, “What have you to say, Abū Majāshi?”

I replied, “Do not rush to judgment. By God, I kept company with this man when he was the lowliest of the Umayyads, while I was then the chief of my people, their wealthiest man and the one of highest standing. The caliphs called upon me for momentous affairs, while this man could not then even hope to attain the position he has now. Yet once he reached the vast green sea, he drew from it a single scoop for us and then said, ‘Enough.’”

Hishām said, “Al-Abrash, forgive me for this. By God, I shall never again do anything you dislike. He has spoken the truth, Abū Uthmān.”

Al-Abrash said, “By God, he continued to treat me with honor until he died.”