27 – With his chain of transmission from ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Abī Mulaykah, who related:
Muʿāwiyah once addressed the people from the pulpit in Mecca and said, “ʿUtbah ibn Abī Sufyān has written to inform me that some men of the tribe of Bāhila have revealed the Muslims’ vulnerable positions to the Byzantines. By Allah, I was on the verge of writing to him, ordering that they be put on board ship and then drowned!”
A black slave rose and declared, “By Allah, we will not be satisfied unless, for every one of them, a man from the progeny of Abū Sufyān is taken.”
Muʿāwiyah retorted, “Sit down, you crow!”
The man answered, “Are you taunting me for my blackness? The crow pecks out the vulture’s eye.”
ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said, “Why don’t you strike the neck of this dog?”
Muʿāwiyah replied, “By Allah, we do not stop them from speaking so long as they do not stop us from exercising our authority.”