In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The best of generations in character and example,
Who followed the Messenger in all he strove for and spoke.
Mawaddah Association
Presents:
"Portraits from the Lives of the Tabi'un"
By Dr. Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
May Allah have mercy upon him.
Sa'id ibn Jubayr,
May Allah have mercy upon him.
He was a sturdy, well-proportioned young man of noble character,
Overflowing with vigor and vitality.
Moreover, he possessed a brilliant mind and sharp intellect,
Always aspiring to noble virtues,
And conscientiously abstaining from forbidden matters.
Neither his dark complexion, his tightly curled hair,
Nor his Abyssinian lineage
Ever detracted from his distinguished and extraordinary personality,
Even despite his youth.
This young man—Abyssinian by descent
And Arab by allegiance (wala')—fully realized
That sacred knowledge was the straight path leading him to Allah,
And that God-fearing piety (taqwa)
Was his paved way to reach Paradise.
So he took piety in his right hand and knowledge in his left,
Clinging firmly to both with all his might,
And set forth on the journey of life without languor or hesitation.
From his earliest youth,
People would see him either devotedly studying his book,
Or standing upright in his prayer niche, engrossed in worship.
Such was the luminary of the Muslims in his era:
Sa'id ibn Jubayr, may Allah be pleased with him.
The young Sa'id ibn Jubayr acquired knowledge from an elite group of eminent Companions,
Such as Abu Sa'id al-Khudri,
'Adi ibn Hatim al-Ta'i,
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari,
Abu Hurayrah al-Dawsi,
'Abdullah ibn 'Umar,
And 'A'ishah, Mother of the Believers,
May Allah be pleased with her and all of them.
Yet his foremost teacher and greatest mentor
Was 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas,
The grand scholar of the Ummah of Muhammad
And the vast, boundless ocean of its knowledge.
Sa'id ibn Jubayr attached himself to 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas
As closely as a shadow accompanies its owner,
Learning from him the Qur'an and its Tafsir,
Hadith and its rare vocabulary,
Mastering fiqh in religion under his guidance,
Learning from him Qur'anic interpretation (ta'wil),
And studying the Arabic language under him
Until he achieved absolute mastery over it,
To the extent that there remained no one on the face of the earth in his time
Except that he was in need of his knowledge.
He then traveled throughout the Muslim lands
In search of knowledge for as long as Allah willed him to travel.
Once he had acquired the full measure of knowledge he sought,
He made Kufa his home and residence,
Becoming a teacher and an imam for its people.
He used to lead the people in prayer during Ramadan;
One night he would recite according to the reading of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud,
Another night according to the reading of Zayd ibn Thabit,
And a third night according to yet another reading,
And so on.
Whenever he prayed alone,
He would often recite the entire Qur'an.
Whenever he passed by the words of Allah, the Mighty and Sublime,
Or passed by similar verses of promise and warning,
His skin would shiver, his heart would tremble,
And his eyes would overflow with tears.
He would repeatedly recite the verse over and over again
Until it seemed as though he were about to perish.
He made a regular habit of journeying to the Sacred House twice every year:
Once in Rajab, entering into ihram
For 'Umrah,
And another in Dhu al-Qi'dah, entering into ihram for Hajj.
Students of knowledge and seekers of good, virtue, and counsel
Used to flock to Kufa
To drink deeply from the abundant, pure springs of Sa'id ibn Jubayr
And to partake of his upright guidance.
One would ask him, "What is true awe (khashyah)?"
To which he would reply,
"True awe is that you fear Allah, the Glorious and Exalted,
Such that your awe of Him stands between you and your sins."
Another would ask him, "What is remembrance (dhikr)?"
He would answer, "Remembrance is obedience to Allah, the Exalted and Majestic.
Whoever turns to Allah and obeys Him has truly remembered Him,
While whoever turns away from Him and disobeys Him
Has not remembered Him, even if he spends his whole night glorifying Allah and reciting."
When Sa'id ibn Jubayr took Kufa as his place of residence,
It was under the rule of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi,
For al-Hajjaj was then the governor of Iraq, the East,
And the lands beyond the river (Transoxiana).
At that time, he was at the very pinnacle of his power and authority,
Having killed 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr,
Crushed his movement,
Brought Iraq firmly under the rule of the Umayyads,
Extinguished the flames of revolts raging here and there,
Put the sword to the necks of the people,
And spread terror throughout the land,
Until hearts were filled with dread of him and fear of his ruthless might.
Then Allah willed that a clash occur between al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi
And 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ash'ath,
One of his senior commanders,
And that this clash turn into a devastating civil strife that consumed everything in its path
And left deep wounds in the body of the Muslim Ummah.
The account of this strife was
That al-Hajjaj dispatched Ibn al-Ash'ath with an army to fight Rutbil,
The king of the Turks in the territories lying beyond Sijistan.
The brave and victorious commander conquered a vast portion of Rutbil's lands,
Seized fortified strongholds in his domain,
And acquired immense spoils of war from its cities and villages.
He then sent emissaries to al-Hajjaj bringing glad tidings of the great victory,
Carrying with them the one-fifth share of the spoils
To be deposited into the public treasury (Bayt al-Mal) of the Muslims.
He also wrote him a letter
Asking permission to halt military operations for a period of time
In order to examine the country's access routes and exits,
To understand its terrain and conditions,
Before advancing deeply into its remote, unknown mountain passes
And exposing the victorious army to peril.
Al-Hajjaj was enraged with him
And sent him a letter accusing him of cowardice and submission,
Warning him of doom and destruction,
And threatening to dismiss him from the command of the army.
Thereupon, 'Abd al-Rahman gathered the prominent figures of the army and the battalion commanders,
Read al-Hajjaj's letter to them,
And consulted them regarding the matter.
They urged him to revolt against him
And to renounce allegiance to him immediately.
'Abd al-Rahman said to them,
"Will you pledge allegiance to me on this basis,
Support me in fighting him,
Until Allah purges the land of Iraq of his filth?"
So the soldiers pledged allegiance to him according to what he called them to.
'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ash'ath mobilized
With his army, which was filled with hatred for al-Hajjaj,
And fierce battles broke out between him
And the armies of Ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi,
In which he scored decisive victories,
Successfully taking control of Sijistan
And most of Persia.
He then advanced, intending to wrest Kufa and Basra from the hands of al-Hajjaj.
While the flames of war were raging between the two factions,
And Ibn al-Ash'ath was moving from one victory to another,
An event befell al-Hajjaj that further strengthened his opponent.
Namely, the provincial governors wrote letters to al-Hajjaj stating
That the non-Muslim subjects (Dhimmi) had begun entering Islam in droves
In order to be exempt from paying the jizya,
That they had abandoned the villages where they worked
And settled in the cities,
Causing the land tax (kharaj) to dwindle
And tax revenues to collapse.
So al-Hajjaj wrote letters to his governors in Basra and elsewhere,
Ordering them to round up all the non-Muslim subjects who had migrated to the cities
And return them to their villages,
No matter how long they had been away from them.
The governors carried out the order,
Evicting large numbers of them from their homes,
Depriving them of their means of livelihood,
Herding them onto the outskirts of the cities,
Expelling their women and children along with them,
And forcibly driving them back to the villages
Long after they had parted from them.
The women, children, and elderly began to weep,
Crying out and pleading for help,
Calling out, "O Muhammad! O Muhammad!"
They were bewildered as to what to do
Or where to go.
The jurists and Qur'an reciters of Basra came out to them
To assist them and intercede on their behalf,
But they were unable to do so.
So they began to weep at their weeping
And lament over their plight.
'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ash'ath seized this opportunity
And called upon the jurists and Qur'an reciters to support him.
A distinguished group of eminent Tabi'un and leaders of the Muslims responded to his call,
Foremost among them Sa'id ibn Jubayr,
'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla,
Al-Sha'bi, Abu al-Bakhtari,
And many, many others.
The mills of war turned between the two sides,
And victory at first belonged to Ibn al-Ash'ath and those with him over al-Hajjaj and his troops.
Then the scales began to tip gradually in favor of al-Hajjaj,
Until Ibn al-Ash'ath suffered a crushing defeat
And fled to save his own life,
While his army surrendered to al-Hajjaj and his soldiers.
Al-Hajjaj ordered his herald to announce among the defeated combatants,
Calling upon them to renew their pledge of allegiance to him.
Most of them complied,
While some went into hiding.
Among those who went into hiding was Sa'id ibn Jubayr, may Allah be pleased with him.
When the surrendering men began coming forward one after another to renew their pledge,
They were caught off guard by something they had never anticipated.
For he began saying to each one of them:
"Do you testify against yourself
That you committed disbelief (kufr) by breaking your pledge of allegiance to the Commander of the Believers?"
If he said yes, he accepted the renewal of his pledge and released him;
and whenever someone said no, he executed him.
Some people would submit to him
and confess disbelief against themselves
just to save their lives from execution,
while others considered that too abhorrent and refused,
paying with their lives as the price for their defiance and refusal.
News of that horrific massacre spread far and wide,
in which several thousand men were slaughtered,
and several thousand others survived
only after branding themselves with disbelief.
Among these cases was an elderly man from the tribe of Khath'am
who had remained neutral between both factions, residing beyond the Euphrates.
He was brought before al-Hajjaj along with those who were captured.
When he was brought in, al-Hajjaj asked about his situation,
to which he replied, "Ever since this war broke out,
I have remained secluded across this river,
waiting to see the outcome of the fighting.
Once you prevailed and were victorious,
I came to offer you my pledge of allegiance."
Al-Hajjaj said to him, "May you perish!
You sat idly waiting and did not fight alongside your commander?"
Then he rebuked him harshly, saying:
"Do you testify against yourself that you are a disbeliever?"
The old man replied, "What a wretched man I would be
if, after worshiping Allah for eighty years,
I were to testify against myself with disbelief!"
Al-Hajjaj said to him, "Then I shall kill you."
He said, "Even if you kill me,
by Allah, nothing remains of my life but the thirst-interval of a donkey,
for it drinks in the morning and dies by evening.
Truly, I await death morning and evening,
so do whatever seems fit to you."
Al-Hajjaj said to his executioner,
"Strike his neck!"
So the executioner struck his neck.
There was no one left in that gathering, whether a partisan of al-Hajjaj or an opponent,
except that he revered the elderly man,
mourned him, and prayed for Allah's mercy upon him.
Then he summoned Kumayl ibn Ziyad al-Nakha'i
and said to him, "Do you testify against yourself with disbelief?"
He replied, "By Allah, I will never so testify!"
He said, "Then I shall kill you."
He replied, "Decree whatever you will decree!
Indeed, our appointment is before Allah,
and after death comes the reckoning."
Al-Hajjaj said to him,
"The proof on that Day shall be against you, not for you!"
He replied, "That would only be so if you were the judge on that Day."
Al-Hajjaj said,
"Kill him!"
So he was brought forward and executed.
Then another man was brought before him
whom al-Hajjaj hated and intensely desired to kill
because of the mockery of him that used to be reported to him.
So he preempted him by saying,
"I see a man before me
whom I do not think would ever testify against himself with disbelief."
The man replied,
"Do not entrap me or deceive me about myself!
I am the most disbelieving person on earth,
even more of a disbeliever than Pharaoh, lord of the stakes!"
So he released him,
while burning with an intense thirst to execute him.
The news of that dreadful massacre spread,
in which several thousand steadfast believers were slain,
and several thousand others survived
among those who were forced to brand themselves with disbelief.
Thus, Sa'id ibn Jubayr realized
that if he fell into the hands of al-Hajjaj,
he would face one of two unavoidable outcomes:
either his neck would be severed,
or he would have to confess disbelief against himself,
and both choices, the sweeter of them was bitter.
So he chose to leave the land of Iraq
and vanish from sight.
He continued traveling across Allah's vast earth,
hiding from al-Hajjaj and his spies,
until he sought refuge in a small village in the territory of Makkah.
He remained in this state for ten full years,
a period sufficient to extinguish the fires of al-Hajjaj—
the fires burning in al-Hajjaj's heart—
and to remove the malice harbored against him.
However, something occurred that no one had anticipated:
there arrived in Makkah
a new governor from among the Umayyad rulers,
Khalid ibn 'Abdullah al-Qasri.
The companions of Sa'id ibn Jubayr grew apprehensive
and fearful of him
because of what they knew of his evil conduct,
expecting harm at his hands.
Some of them came to Sa'id and said to him,
"This man has arrived in Makkah,
and by Allah, we do not feel you are safe from him.
So heed our request and leave this land."
He replied, "By Allah, I have fled so much that I have become ashamed before Allah,
and I have resolved to remain in this place of mine,
and let Allah do whatever He wills."
Khalid did not belie the bad expectations people held of him;
no sooner had he learned of Sa'id ibn Jubayr's whereabouts
than he dispatched a detachment of his soldiers to him,
ordering them to take him bound in chains to al-Hajjaj in the city of Wasit.
The soldiers surrounded the Shaykh's house
and placed the shackles upon his hands
in full view of some of his companions,
and informed him of his departure to al-Hajjaj.
He received them with a composed soul and a tranquil heart,
then turned to his companions and said,
"I see myself only being slain at the hands of that tyrant.
Once, two companions of mine and I spent a night in worship,
and we felt the sweetness of supplication,
so we supplicated Allah with whatever we asked,
and we implored Him as He willed for us to implore.
Then we asked Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, to grant us martyrdom;
and Allah granted it to both of my companions,
while I remained waiting for it."
Then, no sooner had he finished his words
than a young daughter of his came out to him.
She saw him bound in chains as the soldiers were leading him away,
so she clung to him and began weeping and sobbing.
He gently moved her aside and said to her,
"Tell your mother, my little daughter, that our rendezvous is Paradise, if Allah Almighty wills."
Then he departed.
The soldiers arrived with the scholarly imam, the worshiper, the ascetic,
the pious, pure, and devout sage, in the city of Wasit,
and they brought him before al-Hajjaj.
When he stood before him, al-Hajjaj looked at him with malice and said,
"What is your name?"
He said,
"Sa'id ibn Jubayr [The Felicitous, son of the Mended]."
He retorted,
"Rather, you are Shaqiyy ibn Kasir [The Wretched, son of the Broken]!"
He replied,
"Nay, my mother knew my name better than you."
He said,
"What do you say about Muhammad?"
He asked,
"Do you mean Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him?"
He replied, "Yes."
He said,
"The master of the children of Adam,
the chosen Prophet,
the best of all mankind who remain,
and the best of all who have passed.
He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust,
gave sincere counsel for Allah and His Book,
and to the generality of Muslims and their elite."
He asked,
"What do you say about Abu Bakr?"
He said,
"He is al-Siddiq,
the successor of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him;
he departed praiseworthy and lived felicitous,
and proceeded upon the path of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
never altering and never changing."
He asked,
"What do you say about 'Umar?"
He said,
"He is al-Faruq,
through whom Allah distinguished between truth and falsehood,
the chosen of Allah and the chosen of His Messenger;
he proceeded upon the methodology of his two companions,
so he lived praiseworthy and was killed as a martyr."
He asked,
"What do you say about 'Uthman?"
He said,
"He is the equipper of the Army of Hardship,
the digger of the Well of Rumah,
the purchaser of a home for himself in Paradise,
the son-in-law of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) through his two daughters,
and indeed the Prophet (peace be upon him) married them to him
by revelation from heaven;
and he is the one murdered unjustly."
He asked,
"What do you say about 'Ali?"
He said,
"The cousin of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
the first of the youth to embrace Islam,
the husband of Fatimah al-Batul,
and the father of al-Hasan and al-Husayn,
the two masters of the youth of the people of Paradise."
He asked,
"Which of the Umayyad caliphs do you admire most?"
He said,
He said,
"The one most pleasing to their Creator."
He asked,
"And which of them is most pleasing to the Creator?"
He said,
"The knowledge of that rests with the One Who knows their secrets and private counsels."
He said,
"Then what do you say about me?"
He said,
"You know yourself best."
He said,
"Rather, I want your own knowledge about me!"
He said,
"Then it will surely displease you and bring you no joy."
He said,
"I must hear your response."
He said,
"I certainly know that you act contrary to the Book of Allah Almighty,
committing acts by which you seek prestige and awe,
yet they plunge you into perdition
and drive you headlong toward the Fire."
He said,
"By Allah, I will surely execute you!"
He replied,
"Then you will ruin my worldly life,
but I will ruin your Hereafter."
He said,
"Choose for yourself whatever manner of death you wish."
He replied,
"Rather, choose it for yourself, O Hajjaj!
For by Allah, you will not kill me in any manner
except that Allah will kill you in the very same way in the Hereafter."
He said,
"Do you want me to pardon you?"
He replied,
"If there is any pardon, it comes from Allah Almighty;
as for you,
you have neither acquittal nor excuse."
Al-Hajjaj became enraged and said,
"Bring the sword and the execution mat, boy!"
Sa'id smiled,
so al-Hajjaj asked him,
"Why are you smiling?"
He said,
"I marvel at your audacity before Allah
and at Allah's forbearance toward you."
So he said,
"Kill him, boy!"
Sa'id faced the Qiblah and recited:
“Lo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters.” (6:79)
'...and I am not of the polytheists.'
So he said,
"Turn his face away from the Qiblah."
Sa'id recited:
'...wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah.'
So he said,
"Cast him down on his face to the ground!"
Sa'id recited:
“Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second time.” (20:55)
“Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second time.” (20:55)
So al-Hajjaj said,
"Slaughter the enemy of Allah!
For I have never seen a man cite the verses of the Qur'an so swiftly."
Then Sa'id raised his hands and supplicated,
"O Allah, do not give al-Hajjaj power over anyone after me."
Barely fifteen days had passed after the killing of Sa'id Ibn Jubayr
before al-Hajjaj was struck with a fever,
and the severity of the illness worsened upon him.
He would drift into a slumber for an hour and awaken the next,
and whenever he dozed off for a short while,
he would wake up terrified, shouting,
"Here is Sa'id Ibn Jubayr seizing me by my throat!
Here is Sa'id Ibn Jubayr saying, 'Why did you kill me?'"
Then he would weep and say,
"What is between me and Sa'id Ibn Jubayr?
Keep Sa'id Ibn Jubayr away from me!"
When he finally died and was buried beneath the dust,
someone saw him in a dream
and asked him,
"What has Allah done with you regarding those you killed, O Hajjaj?"
He replied,
"Allah killed me once for every single person,
and He killed me seventy times for Sa'id Ibn Jubayr."
Sa'id Ibn Jubayr was killed
when everyone on earth was in need of his vast knowledge.
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal
said regarding this, or as the poet said:
"They were here, quenching the clouds of our lives,
so how could their legacy not resound high among us?
They departed, leaving a question within the conscience:
Has any star ever risen and shone as brilliantly as they did?
They filled life with glorious feats by their deeds,
and through them, our world flourished with brilliance."