Al Hajjâj kept pursuing the noble scholar Sa`îd bin Jubayr for eight years or more
until he eventually found him.
Bin Jubayr was a scholar known for his scrupulous piety and a man of great knowledge and action who was waging jihâd to raise the flag of La ilaha ill Allâh the uppermost.
When he was arrested – as in the story mentioned by the author of Tuhfatul Ahwadhi –
Sa`îd bin Jubayr entered upon al Hajjâj, so al Hajjâj told him:
| “What is your name (and he knew his name well)?” |
He answered:
| “Sa`îd bin Jubayr.” |
So Al Hajjâj responded to him saying:
| “Nay, you are Shaqiy bin Kusayr.” |
(Al-Hajjâj is playing with words here: Sa`îd means happy and Shaqiy means unhappy, wretched. Jubayr means one who splints broken bones, and Kusayr one who breaks them.)
Sa`îd told him:
| “My mother knew better when she named me.” |
So Al Hajjâj told him:
| “You are wretched (shaqayta) and your mother is wretched” |
(shaqiyat – Al Hajjâj is again playing with words, referring to Shaqiyy
–“unhappy/wretched”). Then he told him:
| “By Allâh, I will replace your dunya with a blazing Fire.” |
Sa`îd said,
| “If I knew you could do it, I would take you as a god.” |
So al Hajjâj told him,
| “I have gold and wealth.” |
Bags of gold and silver were brought and spread before Sa`îd bin Jubayr in order to try him.
Sa`îd bin Jubayr said:
| “O Hajjâj, if you gathered it to be seen and heard in show-off, and to use it to avert others from the way of Allâh, then by Allâh, it will not avail you (lan yughnîka) against Him in any way.” |
So Al Hajjâj said:
| “I have a female slave-singer” |
(al-mughanniyah – al-Hajjâj
continues to play with words, responding in mockery to Sa`îd’s words ‘lan yughnîka/it will not avail you’ with a word that has the same trilateral root). He told her:
| “Sing for me and entertain me.” |
Sa`îd bin Jubayr cried, and Al Hajjâj told him:
| “Are you crying out of joy?” |
So Sa`îd told him:
| “By Allâh, I do not cry out of joy, but I cry for the slave girl that was subjected to other than what she was created for, for she was not created to sing, and `ûd (musical instrument) was not built but for disobedience of Allâh.” |
Al Hajjâj said:
| “Take him and turn him to other than the Qiblah. By Allâh, O Said bin Jubayr, I will kill you with a killing with which I have not killed any of the people.” |
Sa`îd said:
| “O Hajjâj choose for yourself whatever killing you want, by Allâh you will not kill me with a killing except that Allâh will kill you with a like of it, so choose for yourself whatever killing you like.” |
Al Hajjâj said:
| “Turn him (wallûh) to other than the Qiblah.” |
Sa`îd said:
| “Wherever you [might] turn (tuwallû), there is the Face of Allâh.” [Qur’ân, 2:115] |
Al Hajjâj said,
| “Put him under the earth.” |
Sa`îd said:
| “From it [the earth] We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will extract you another time.” [Qur’ân, 20:55] |
The Death of Al-Hajjâj
Al-Hajjâj said:
| “Kill him.” |
Sa`îd said:
| “Lâ ilaha ill Allâh Muhammadun Rasulullâh. Take it, O Hajjâj, until you meet me with it tomorrow before Allâh. O Allâh, do not give him authority over anyone after me! O One who cuts up the tyrants, cut up al Hajjâj!” – |
and in the same gathering a blister appeared on Al-Hajjâj’s hand and he became enraged like a bull for a whole month – he couldn’t sleep from the pain and fatigue,
nor could he eat and drink.
Al-Hajjâj said about himself:
| “No night has passed except that I saw myself swimming in blood and no night has passed except that I saw as if al Qiyamah took place and that Allâh took me to account and that I was killed for whoever I killed with one killing, except Sa`îd bin Jubayr – Allâh punished me for killing him with seventy killings.” |
Allâh caused him to die after a month. He is considered wretched and miserable, although he belonged to Muslims. This is because he didn’t know the guidance or uprightness and because he couldn’t make sense out of his life mission.
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