he ordered that he be crucified on a wooden beam and told a man to pierce him with a spear, but the spear bent on one of his ribs. ʿAbd al-Malik asked the executioner, “Woe to you! Did you mention the Name of Allah when you struck him?”
The man replied, “I forgot.”
ʿAbd al-Malik said, “Woe to you! Pronounce the Name of Allah, then stab him.” So the man invoked the Name of Allah, thrust the spear again, and killed him.

Before resorting to crucifixion, ʿAbd al-Malik had kept him in custody and sent a group of jurists and scholars to admonish him and to explain that what possessed him was from Satan. When he refused all counsel, the caliph crucified him—and that was perfect justice and true religion.

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim, reporting from Ibn Jābir, said that someone who had heard ʿUtbah al-Aʿwar told him: “I heard al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād al-ʿAdawī say, ‘I never envied ʿAbd al-Malik for anything in his rule except his killing of al-Ḥārith. I was informed that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“The Hour will not be established until thirty great impostors emerge, every one of them a liar claiming to be a prophet. Whoever makes that claim—kill him; and whoever kills one of them shall have Paradise.” (1)

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim also related that Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah once said to ʿAbd al-Malik, “Had I been with you, I would not have ordered his execution.”
The caliph asked, “Why not?”
He replied, “He was only suffering from al-mudhhab (2); had you starved him (3) a little, it would have left him.”

Al-Walīd, on the authority of al-Mundhir ibn Nāfiʿ, narrated: I heard Khālid ibn al-Lajlāj say to Ghaylān, “Woe to you, O Ghaylān! In your youth you used to flirt with women in Ramadan by tossing them apples; then you became a Ḥārithī, screening your wife and claiming she was ‘Mother of the Believers.’ After that you turned into a Qadarī zindiq (4)!”

In that same year, ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Bakrah campaigned against Rutbīl, the paramount king of the Turks. Rutbīl would at times court the Muslims and at other times revolt. Al-Ḥajjāj therefore wrote to ʿUbayd Allah instructing him to attack with the Muslims under his command until he laid waste to the king’s land, demolished his forts, and killed his fighters.

ʿUbayd Allah set out with a large force from his own province, reinforced by contingents from Basra and Kūfa. He confronted Rutbīl, routed him, and smashed his power in a single decisive blow. Ibn Abī Bakrah and his troops then swept through the country, seizing many of its districts, cities, and towns, and laying everything to ruin.

Rutbīl withdrew, and Ibn Abī Bakrah pursued him until they were only eighteen farsakhs from his great capital; the Turks were struck with terrible fear. But the Turks blocked the roads and passes, constricting every route, so that each Muslim was certain of annihilation. At that point ʿUbayd Allah sought terms, proposing that Rutbīl pay seven hundred thousand (5) and open a passage through which the Muslims might withdraw to their own lands.

Shurayḥ ibn Hāniʾ— a Companion, one of ʿAlī’s chief followers, and the leader of the people of Kūfa—then rose and rallied the men to fight steadfastly, to engage, and to meet the enemy with swords, spears, and arrows. ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Bakrah tried to restrain him, but he refused, and the people answered his call.