2307 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; al-Hasan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Judhami, Abu ʿAli al-Jarawi, narrated to me. He said: Damrah wrote to us from Rajaʾ ibn Jamil al-Ayli, who said:

ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd al-Qari said to Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib when the pledge of allegiance for al-Walid and Sulayman was proclaimed in Madinah after their father:

“I wish to advise you concerning three matters.”

He replied, “And what are they?”

He said, “Withdraw from the place where you usually stand, for you stand where Hisham ibn Ismaʿil can see you; or set out to perform ʿumrah.”

He answered, “I am not about to spend my wealth and weary my body on something for which I have formed no intention.” ⦗316⦘

He said, “And what is the third?”

He replied, “Give the pledge.”

Saʿid said, “Tell me: if Allah—Exalted is He—has blinded your heart just as He has blinded your eyesight, what obligation rests upon me?” (He was blind.)

Rajaʾ continued: Hisham then summoned him to give the pledge, but he refused. Hisham wrote about him to ʿAbd al-Malik, and ʿAbd al-Malik wrote back, “What concern have you with Saʿid? We have never had from him anything we dislike. Nevertheless, since you have taken matters this far, strike him thirty lashes, dress him in a hair tubbān, and make him stand publicly so that the people do not follow his example.”

Hisham therefore summoned him again, but he refused, saying, “I will not pledge allegiance to two men.” So Hisham flogged him thirty strokes, put a hair tubbān on him, and stood him before the people.

Rajaʾ said: The men of Ayla who were in the police force of Madinah told me, “We knew that he would never willingly wear a tubbān, so we said to him, ‘O Abu Muhammad, this means execution; cover your nakedness.’” Thus he put it on.

When he had been flogged and realized that we had deceived him, he said, “What haste on the part of the people of Ayla! Had I not thought it was the death penalty, I would never have worn it.”