I say: If ʿUmar was conveying this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, it is corroborated by other narrations; and if he spoke it independently, then a saintly karāmah is nevertheless a miracle granted in honor of his Prophet.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: “Jaʿfar—meaning Ibn Sulaymān—reported to us, from Mālik ibn Dīnār, from al-Ḥasan, who said: ʿAlī addressed the people of Kūfah, praying, ‘O Allah, just as I trusted them and they betrayed me, and I advised them and they deceived me, set over them the Thaqafite youth—the swaggering, capricious one—who will consume their lush produce, wear their furs, and rule them with the judgment of the Age of Ignorance.’ Al-Ḥasan added: ‘Al-Ḥasan died before Allah had even created al-Ḥajjāj on that day.’ (1) This isnād is interrupted.

Al-Bayhaqī also transmitted it through Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān, from his father, from Ayyūb, from Mālik ibn Aws ibn al-Ḥadathān, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who said: “The swaggering youth will be the governor of the Egyptians: he will wear their furs, eat their greenery, kill their nobles; perspiration will pour from him and sleeplessness will be his lot, and Allah will unleash him upon his own partisans.” (2)

In another chain, through Yazīd ibn Hārūn—al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab told us, Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit narrated to me—ʿAlī said: “You will not die until you encounter the youth of Thaqīf.” He was asked, “Commander of the Believers, who is this youth of Thaqīf?” He replied, “On the Day of Resurrection it will be said to him, ‘Spare us one corner of Hellfire.’ He will rule for twenty—or a little more than twenty—years, and he will leave no sin against Allah uncommitted. Were a single sin to remain and a locked door stood between him and it, he would smash the door to commit it. He will kill with those who obey him those who disobey him.” (3) This chain is muʿḍal and its authenticity from ʿAlī is questionable; Allah knows best.

Al-Bayhaqī reported—through al-Ḥākim, al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ayyūb, Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Tannīsī—from Hishām ibn Yaḥyā al-Ghassānī, that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said: “If every nation were to bring its most wicked person, and we brought them al-Ḥajjāj, we would surpass them all.” (4)

Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated, from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd: “No sacred limit of Allah remained except that al-Ḥajjāj violated it.” (5)

ʿAbd al-Razzāq also reported, from Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, that when Ibn Ṭāwūs’s father was certain of al-Ḥajjāj’s death, he recited: “So the last remnant of the wrongdoing people was cut off, and all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.” (al-Anʿām 6:45) (6)

I say: Al-Ḥajjāj died in the year 95 AH.