then Allah turned the earth against them and returned them to it; it consumed their flesh just as they had consumed its fruits, drank their blood just as they had drunk its rivers, and tore them apart within its belly, scattering their limbs, just as they had rent it open with picks and mattocks.

Among the reports transmitted by several narrators from al-Hajjaj is that he once said, in a sermon of admonition:

“O man—and every one of you is that man—who has muzzled his own soul and reined it in, leading it by its halter toward obedience to Allah and holding it back with its bridle from disobedience to Allah. May Allah have mercy on a man who brings his soul to heel, a man who suspects his own soul, a man who treats his soul as an enemy, a man who calls himself to account before the reckoning is placed in other hands; a man who looks to his scale, a man who looks to his record, a man who weighs his deeds, a man who thinks about what he will read tomorrow in his scroll and behold upon his scale; whose heart serves as a deterrent and whose resolve serves as a commander; a man who seizes the reins of his deeds as one seizes the reins of his camel—if they lead him to obedience to Allah he follows, and if they pull him toward disobedience to Allah he stops; a man who understands what Allah has commanded, a man who awakens and comes to his senses, who hates sin and hypocrisy and yearns for what is with Allah.”

He kept repeating, “a man… a man…” until Mālik ibn Dīnār wept (1).

Al-Madāʾinī relates, on the authority of ʿAwānah ibn al-Ḥakam, that al-Shaʿbī said: “I heard al-Hajjaj utter words no one had ever voiced before. He said:

‘To proceed: Allah, Exalted is He, has decreed extinction for this world and permanence for the Hereafter; that which is destined to endure will never perish, and that which is destined to perish will never endure. Let not the present world that you see blind you to the unseen Hereafter, and conquer the length of your hopes with the shortness of your appointed term.’” (2)

Al-Madāʾinī also relates, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī, from his uncle, who said: “I heard al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī say, ‘A single sentence I heard from al-Hajjaj stung me awake: I heard him, upon this very pulpit, say, “If an hour of a man’s life passes in something other than that for which he was created, he deserves that his remorse over it should last until the Day of Resurrection.”’” (3)

Shurayk the judge, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, said: “Al-Hajjaj once announced, ‘Whoever has a deed of distinction, we shall reward him according to it.’ A man rose and said, ‘Reward me, for I killed al-Ḥusayn.’ Al-Hajjaj asked, ‘How did you kill him?’ The man replied, ‘I drove my spear into him again and again, I hacked at him with the sword stroke after stroke, and I did not allow anyone to share with me in his death.’ Al-Hajjaj said, ‘Be gone! By Allah, you and he shall never be gathered in the same place.’ He gave him nothing (4).

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said: “A man came to al-Hajjaj and said, ‘My brother went out with Ibn al-Ashʿath; my name was struck from the dīwān (government register), my stipend was withheld, and my house has been demolished.’ Al-Hajjaj replied, ‘Have you not heard the poet say:'”