that read: “So fear Allah and do not inflict all this oppression upon His servants.”
Al-Ḥajjāj thereupon mounted the pulpit—he was a gifted orator—and proclaimed: “People! Allah has set me over you because of your own deeds. If I should die, you will not be rid of tyranny so long as these evil deeds remain, for Allah has created many like me; and if it is not I, someone even harsher will rule you.”
A poet has said:
“No hand is there but Allah’s hand is above it,
And no oppressor but one day he shall be tried by a greater oppressor.”
Maxim. Buzurjmehr was asked, “Which king is the purest?”
He replied, “The one whom the righteous feel safe with and the sinners fear.”
As for a ruler who lacks statesmanship, he counts for nothing in the people’s eyes; they are angered by him, and they mention him at every turn with contempt. Have you not noticed that when an ordinary man, scarcely known, is placed in authority and wishes to call the subjects to account, the very first thing he employs is awe, displaying his prestige through firm policy, knowing that the populace judge him by that first impression?
An astonishing story is told in this regard. Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith had a son known as Ziyād ibn Abīh, born in the pre-Islamic era. His father denied him and disowned him, saying, “He is no son of mine.” When the matter reached Muʿāwiya, he drew Ziyād close, favored him, and appointed him governor of Iraq.
When Ziyād reached Iraq, he found its people frivolous—spreading corruption and stealing. He went to the main congregational mosque, ascended the pulpit, and, after delivering a sermon, declared, “By Allah, if anyone goes out after the late-night (ʿishāʾ) prayer, I shall sever his head from his body. Let those present inform those absent.” He then ordered a public crier to announce this for three successive days.
On the fourth night, after a third of the night had passed, Ziyād himself went out on horseback and began patrolling the city quarters. He came upon a Bedouin standing with his flock of sheep. Ziyād asked, “What are you doing here?”
The man replied, “I arrived this evening and could not find a place to lodge, so I have stayed here until morning, when I will sell my sheep.”
Ziyād said, “I know you are telling the truth; yet if I release you, the news will spread that Ziyād says what he does not do, my governance will be ruined, and my awe will be broken. Paradise is better for you than this world.” He then struck off the man’s head.
He continued on his way; anyone he came across, he beheaded and removed the head. By dawn he had taken one thousand five hundred heads, which he piled at the gate of his residence like a heap of grain, so that all who saw them were overwhelmed with terror.