He went on to say, “That man was one of those who had witnessed his flogging. When he came out I heard him swear, ‘By Allah, I have spoken with three caliphs and walked upon their carpets; never did I fear them, nor did I feel the terror that I felt for him while he lay there covered. By Allah, I saw him debating: he towered over them, his heart unshaken. Al-Muʿtaṣim would address him, saying, “Give me an answer to what I am asking—if not the whole of it, then part of it.” He would reply, “I will say only what is in the Book of Allah or the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah.” The caliph would insist, “Will you not say that the Qur’an is created?” and he would respond, “How can I say something that He has never said?!”’
The man continued, ‘I turned to the person standing next to me and said, “Do you not see that he has no fear of what he is facing, nor does he commit a single error in speech at such a moment, while the whips and the executioners stand before him and he has nothing in his hand with which to defend himself?”’
Abu Ishaq—Ibrahim ibn Ishaq al-Shiraji—narrated to us: al-Marwazi reported, ‘I heard Abu ʿAbd Allah say: “When I was beaten there were two executioners; each one would strike me once with the lash and then step aside, whereupon the other would strike me and step aside.”
I asked him, “Did Abu Ishaq come over to you twice?” He replied, “On one occasion—I remember it well—he stepped out into the portico and ordered, ‘Seize him.’ They took hold of me by the arms and dragged me nearly a hundred cubits to the two executioners. They stripped me, and I can still feel the pain of that in my shoulders to this very hour. I had thick hair, and the cord of my waistband snapped. I said to myself, ‘Now it will turn black,’—meaning, while I was still among them.
I asked, ‘Who handed you a thread in that place?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’ So I tied up my trousers with it, and I was told that they removed the shirt without tearing it; in its sleeve was a hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”’