The reason he refrained was that Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib had asked ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz to speak to him about the matter and admonish him, so he abandoned it. When Sulaymān later came on pilgrimage, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed him of what al-Walīd had intended and that Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib had dissuaded him from it. Sulaymān replied:

“I would not like such a deed to be ascribed to ʿAbd al-Malik or to al-Walīd, and it is not fitting for us to do it either. What concern of ours is this? The world has already been placed in our hands—shall we then take one of the landmarks of Islam to which the people journey and move it close to ourselves? Such a thing is not permissible.” (may Allah have mercy on him).

In this same year Muʿāwiyah dismissed Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj ⦗1⦘ from the governorship of Egypt and, together with Ifrīqiyah, appointed Maslama ibn Mukhlad over it.

That year ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ—acting on Muʿāwiyah’s orders—conquered the lands of Ifrīqiyah and laid out the foundations of al-Qayrawān. The site had been a dense thicket frequented by wild beasts and large serpents; he invoked Allah, and not one creature remained. The beasts emerged carrying their young, and the snakes slithered out of their holes in flight. As a result, a great many of the Berbers embraced Islam, and on that spot he built al-Qayrawān.

That year Busr ibn Abī Arṭāt and Sufyān ibn ʿAwf raided Byzantine territory, and Faḍālah ibn ʿUbayd undertook a naval expedition.

In the same year there died:

Midlaj ⦗2⦘ ibn ʿAmr al-Sulamī ⦗3⦘, a venerable Companion who took part in every campaign with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. I have found no further mention of him among the lists of Companions ⦗4⦘ ⦗5⦘.

Abū’l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī records in al-Muntaẓam that in this year there also passed away: Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, Ḥassān ibn Thābit, al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAmr al-Ghifārī, Diḥyah ibn Khalīfah al-Kalbī, ʿAqīl ibn Abī Ṭālib, ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī of Badr, Kaʿb ibn Mālik, al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, Juwayriyah bint al-Ḥārith, Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyay, and Umm Sharik al-Anṣāriyyah—may Allah be pleased with them all.