the husband, only to find the leading figures of Quraysh standing before him. He exclaimed, “May Allah make me your ransom! What has brought you here?”
They answered, “A request on behalf of Ibn Abī ʿAtīq.”
The man replied, “Bear witness that his request is granted and his ruling accepted.”
They said, “State your need.”
So Ibn Abī ʿAtīq declared, “Bear witness that his wife Lubnā is hereby divorced from him.”
ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar retorted, “May Allah disgrace you! Is this why you brought us here?”
He replied, “May I be your ransom! It is better that this man divorce her and marry another than that a Muslim die of longing for her love. By Allah, I shall not leave until her belongings are moved [to Qays’s house].”
It was done, and they lived for some time in the greatest ease and comfort. May Allah have mercy on them all.
Yazīd ibn Ziyād (1) Rabiʿah al-Ḥimyarī, the poet. He was prolific in verse and satire. ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād wanted to kill him because he had lampooned his father Ziyād, but Muʿāwiyah prevented the execution, saying, “Discipline him instead.” So he gave him a purgative, mounted him on a donkey, and paraded him through the markets while he defecated on the animal. Yazīd composed the following lines about the incident:
Water may wash away what you have done,
but my poetry remains fixed in your decaying bones. (2)
Bashīr ibn al-Naḍr (3), the judge of Egypt. His annual stipend was one thousand dinars. He died in Egypt, and after him ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥamzah al-Khawlānī assumed the post. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.
Mālik ibn Yukhamir (4) al-Saksakī, al-Alahānī, of Ḥimṣ—a distinguished Successor. Some claim he was a Companion; Allah knows best. Al-Bukhārī (5) relates through Muʿāwiyah from him, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, the hadith concerning the group that will remain victorious upon the truth, stating that they will be in Syria. This is an instance of a senior narrator transmitting from a junior—unless one accepts that Mālik ibn Yukhamir was a Companion. The sound position is that he was a Successor, not a Companion, and he was among Muʿādh ibn Jabal’s closest disciples, may Allah be pleased with him.
More than one scholar held that he died this year; others place his death in 72 AH. Allah, exalted and most high, knows best.