Hanbal ibn Isḥāq said:
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Raqāshī narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Zayd narrated to us:
“I was in the palace with al-Ḥajjāj while he was reviewing the people on the nights after the rebellion of Ibn al-Ashʿath. Anas ibn Mālik came in, and al-Ḥajjāj said:
‘Hey, you wicked man—always roaming about in times of sedition: once with ʿAlī, once with Ibn al-Zubayr, and once with Ibn al-Ashʿath! By Him in whose hand the soul of al-Ḥajjāj is, I will uproot you as gum-weed is uprooted and I will strip you the way a lizard is flayed!’
Anas replied, ‘Does the governor mean me?’ He said, ‘Yes, I mean you—may Allah deafen your hearing!’
Anas then pronounced the istirjāʿ—‘To Allah we belong and to Him we return’—and when al-Ḥajjāj became distracted, Anas left. We followed him to the public square (al-Raḥbah), and he said, ‘Had I not remembered my children—’ (in another report: ‘my little children’) ‘—and feared for them after me, I would have addressed him here with such words that he would never again dare treat me lightly.’ (1)
Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related that Anas wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik complaining about al-Ḥajjāj, saying, ‘By Allah, if the Jews or Christians saw someone who had served their prophet, they would honor him, and I served the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for ten years.’ He described the abuse he had suffered. When ʿAbd al-Malik read the letter, he was greatly disturbed and wrote back: ‘Woe to you! I fear that no one will ever be set right at your hands.’ He added harsh words and ordered: ‘When my letter reaches you, go to Anas and apologize to him.’
When this severe letter reached al-Ḥajjāj he prepared to go to Anas, but Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī al-Muhājir—who had brought the letter and was a friend of al-Ḥajjāj—advised him not to, and suggested to Anas that he take the initiative and reconcile. Anas therefore came to al-Ḥajjāj; the latter rose to meet him and said, ‘The likeness of you and me is the proverb: “It is you I mean, so listen, O neighbor!” I only wished that no one would retain any argument against me.’
Ibn Qutaybah said (2): ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to al-Ḥajjāj—after what he had said to Anas:
‘O son of the woman whose pudendum tightens around dried grape-seeds! I was on the verge of kicking you a kick that would have hurled you into the Fire of Hell. May Allah fight you—squint-eyed, pigeon-toed, dark-buttocked creature!’
(The phrase ‘whose pudendum tightens around dried grape-seeds’ means that her private part contracts during intercourse, and ‘kick’ here means ‘strike you with my foot.’ A fuller discussion will appear in the biography of al-Ḥajjāj under the year 95 AH.)
Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIjlī said (3): ‘No one among the Companions was afflicted with illness except two men: Muʿayqīb, who had leprosy, and Anas ibn Mālik, who had waḍaḥ (vitiligo).’
Al-Ḥumaydī reported, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Abū Jaʿfar, who said: ‘I saw Anas eating; he was placing very large morsels in his mouth, and I noticed that he had severe vitiligo.’ (4)