and he heard a plea for help. “What is that?” he asked. They answered, “It is the people in the prisons saying, ‘The heat is killing us.’” He said, “Tell them: ‘Remain despised therein, and do not speak to Me’ (al-Muʾminun 23:108).” He survived for no more than a single week after that (1).

Some reported: I saw him coming to the Friday Prayer when he was on the verge of perishing from illness.

Al-Asmaʿi said: When al-Hajjaj fell ill, the people began spreading the rumor of his death, so he proclaimed in a sermon, “A faction of the people of dissension and hypocrisy—Satan having stirred them up (2)—are saying, ‘Al-Hajjaj has died, al-Hajjaj has died!’ Well, and then what? Does al-Hajjaj hope for any good except after death? By Allah, I would not wish to remain alive even if I possessed the whole world and all that is in it. I have never seen Allah grant immortality to anyone except the most insignificant of His creatures, Iblis; to him He said, ‘Indeed, you are of those deferred’ (al-Aʿraf 7:15), and thus gave him respite until the Day of Judgment. The righteous servant once prayed, saying, ‘Grant me a kingdom such as shall not belong to anyone after me’ (Sad 38:35), and Allah granted him that—everything except permanence (3).

“And the righteous servant asked for death once his affair was complete, saying, ‘Cause me to die a Muslim and join me with the righteous’ (Yusuf 12:101). So what do you imagine, O man—and each one of you is that man! By Allah, I can already picture every living one of you as dead and every fresh thing as withered; then you will be carried in the cloth of your shroud, (and a trench will be dug for him in the earth) three cubits (4) long and one cubit wide. Your flesh will be eaten, your pus sucked out, and the beloved son will turn away to divide the beloved’s wealth. Those who possess understanding comprehend what I say.” He then descended (5).

Ibrahim ibn Hisham ibn Yahya al-Ghassani narrated, from his father, from his grandfather, that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz said: “I never envied the enemy of Allah, al-Hajjaj, for anything the way I envy him for his love of the Quran, his generosity toward its people, and for the words he spoke when death approached: ‘O Allah, forgive me, for people claim that You will not.’ (6)

Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Dunya said: ʿAli ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Salama al-Majishun narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, who said: “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz detested al-Hajjaj, yet he grudged him for one sentence he spoke at the moment of death: ‘O Allah, forgive me, for they claim that You will not.’” (7)