—among the Bazuriyyīn (1) by the house of Ibn Abī ʿAqb, the author of the Epic.
Rūḥ was an eminent tābiʿī: he transmitted from his father—who had been a Companion—as well as from Tamīm al-Dārī, ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, Muʿāwiyah, Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, and others. A number of scholars, among them ʿUbādah ibn Nusayy, narrated from him.
With ʿAbd al-Malik he held a post akin to vizier, hardly ever leaving the caliph’s side. He had stood with his father Marwān on the day of Marj Rāhiṭ, and Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah had appointed him over the forces of Palestine. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj claimed that Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ enjoyed Companionship, but no one else upheld that view; the sound position is that he was a tābiʿī, not a Companion.
Among his singular merits was that every time he emerged from the public bath he would manumit a slave. Ibn Zabar (2) said that he died in the Jordan region in 84 AH, though others maintained he lived on into the days of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.
On one occasion he performed the ḥajj and stopped at a watering place between Mecca and Medina. He ordered that an array of dishes, varied in color, be prepared for him, and they were set before him. While he was eating, a shepherd arrived to water his flock. Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ invited him to share the food, but the shepherd looked at the spread and said, “I am fasting.”
Rūḥ asked, “On this long, scorching day you are fasting, shepherd?”
The man replied, “Shall I barter away my days for your food?” He then chose a spot for himself, settled there, and left Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ.
Rūḥ composed these lines:
“You begrudge your days, O shepherd, while Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ would freely give them away.”
Thereupon Rūḥ wept at length and ordered that the dishes be removed. He said, “See whether you can find anyone—among these Bedouins or shepherds—who will eat them.” Then he departed that place, the shepherd having seized his heart and made his own soul seem small to him. Allah—exalted and most high—knows best (3).
[Then came the year 85 AH]
According to Ibn Jarīr, it was in this year that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ashʿath was killed; Allah knows best.
In the same year al-Ḥajjāj dismissed Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab from the governorship of Khurāsān and appointed in his stead Yazīd’s brother al-Muḍaffar ibn al-Muhallab.
The reason was that al-Ḥajjāj once visited ʿAbd al-Malik; on his way back he passed a monastery and was told, “Inside is an aged, learned man of the People of the Book.” He summoned the monk and asked, “O elder, do you find in your scriptures anything concerning what you and we now experience?”
He replied, “Yes.”
Al-Ḥajjāj said, “What do you find concerning the description of the Commander of the Believers?”
The monk answered, “We find him a bald king; whoever stands in his path is struck down.”
Al-Ḥajjāj asked, “And after him?”
He said, “A man called al-Walīd.”
Al-Ḥajjāj asked, “And what then?”
He replied, “Then a man whose name is that of a prophet; through him victory is granted to the people.”
Al-Ḥajjāj said