In that same year the people of Palestine pledged allegiance to Yazid ibn Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. The descendants of Sulayman owned estates in the region and often resided there, and the inhabitants of Palestine were fond of having them as neighbors. When al-Walid ibn Yazid was killed, Saʿid ibn Rawḥ ibn Zinbaʿ—the leading notable of the area—wrote to Yazid ibn Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik inviting him to accept their oath of allegiance, and Yazid agreed.
When the people of the Jordan district heard of this, they too pledged allegiance to Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan, appointing him over themselves. When word of their action reached the Commander of the Faithful, Yazid ibn al-Walid, he dispatched troops against them under Sulayman ibn Hisham, drawn from the Damascenes and the men of Homs who had fought alongside al-Sufyani. The people of Jordan were the first to sue for peace and return to obedience, and the people of Palestine soon followed. Yazid ibn al-Walid then issued a decree appointing his brother Ibrahim ibn al-Walid governor of Ramla and the surrounding districts, and order was restored there.
The Commander of the Faithful, Yazid ibn al-Walid, then addressed the people of Damascus. After praising Allah and extolling Him as He deserves, he said:
“To proceed: O people! By Allah, I did not rise out of vanity or arrogance, nor out of greed for this world or a desire for dominion. I make no pretenses about myself; indeed, I wrong my own soul unless my Lord shows me mercy, for then I am lost. Rather, I rose in anger for the sake of Allah, His Messenger, and His religion, calling to Allah, to His Book, and to the sunnah of His Prophet Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—after the landmarks of the religion had been demolished, the light of the God-fearing extinguished, and a stubborn tyrant had emerged who made every sanctity lawful and embraced every innovation. By Allah, he never truly believed in the Book nor in the Day of Reckoning, though he is my cousin by lineage and my equal in ancestry. When I saw this, I sought guidance from Allah concerning him and asked Him not to leave me to myself. I summoned to this cause those of my supporters who answered me, and I pursued it until, by Allah’s power and might—not by my own strength or power—He relieved His servants and His lands of him.
O people! You have a right over me that I shall not set stone upon stone or brick upon brick, nor divert a canal, nor amass wealth, nor bestow it upon wife or child, nor transfer money from one province to another until I have secured the frontier of that province and satisfied the needs of its people with what will suffice them. If anything remains beyond that, I will move it to the province most in need of it. I will not keep you garrisoned so long on your frontiers that you and your families are afflicted, nor will I close my door against you so that the strong among you devours the weak. I will not impose upon the people under your jizya such burdens as would drive them from their lands and cut off their progeny (1). Your stipends will reach you from me each year and your rations each month, so that livelihood may circulate among the Muslims and the most distant of them may live like the nearest.
If I fulfill for you what I have promised, then upon you are hearing, obedience, and good support. But if I fail, you have the right to depose me—unless you first call me to repent; if I repent, you must accept it from me. Should you learn of someone among the righteous and pious who will give you from himself what I give you, and you wish to pledge allegiance to him, I shall be the first to do so and to enter into his obedience.
O people! There is no obedience to a creature that involves disobedience to the Creator. Obedience is only obedience to Allah. Whoever obeys Allah—obey him so long as he obeys Allah; but when he sins or calls others to sin, he deserves to be disobeyed, indeed to be killed and humiliated. I say these words of mine, and I seek Allah’s forgiveness for me and for you.”