The story of the slave-girl of Zubayr

372. From him, from Ahmad, from Zara’at, from Sama’at who said: A man from the children of Umar Bin Al-Khattaab exposed (molested) a maid of an Uqeyli man. So she said to him, It was this Umary who has hurt me’. So he said to her, ‘Let him come into the corridor’. So she let him in, and he pounced hard and killed him, and threw his body onto the street’ So the Bakries, and Umaries, and Usmaanies gathered and said, ‘There is no match for our companion. We will not avenge his killing except by Ja’far Bin Muhammad, and we will not kill for our companion except him (asws). And Abu Abdullah (asws) had gone near the Quba. So I met him (asws) and told of the gathering of the people against him (asws). So he (asws) said: ‘Leave them’. So when they came and saw him (asws), they were aggressive against him (asws) and said, ‘No one killed our companion apart from you (asws), and we will not kill anyone apart from you (asws)’. So he (asws) said; ‘Let a group from you speak to me (asws)’. So a group separated itself from them, grabbed him (asws) by the hand and entered with him (asws) into the Masjid. So when they came out, they were saying, ‘Our Sheikh is Abu Abdullah Ja’far Bin Muhammad (asws). We seek Refuge with Allah (azwj) that there was someone like him (asws) and for having done this, or ordered for it’. They dispersed. When they had finished with him (asws), I said, ‘May I be sacrificed for you (asws), how close was their happiness from their anger’. He (asws) said: ‘Yes. I (asws) called them, so I (asws) said: ‘Let me (asws) go or else I (asws) will bring out the Parchment!’ So I said, ‘And what is this Parchment, may I be sacrificed for you (asws)?’ So he (asws) said: ‘The mother of Al-Khattaab was a slave girl of Al-Zubeyr Bin Abdul Muttalib. Nufeyl seduced her and impregnated her. So Zubeyr was looking for him, and he fled to Al-Taef. Zubeyr went out behind him. Saqeef saw him and said, ‘O Abu Abdullah, what are you doing over here?’ My maid was seduced by Nufeyl’. So he ran away from it to Syria and Al-Zubeyr went out on business to Syria. So he came up to the King of Dowmat who said to him, ‘O Abu Abdullah! I have a need from you’. He said, ‘And what is your need, O King’. He said, ‘A man from your people has taken his son, so I would love to return him back to his father’. He said, ‘Display him to me until I can recognise him’. So when it was the morning, he came up to the King. When the King saw him, he laughed. So he said, ‘What made you to laugh, O King?’ He said, ‘I don’t think that this man has been born to an Arab. When he saw you entering, he could not control his backside and released wind’. He said, ‘O King! When I go to Makkah, I shall fulfil your request’. So when Al-Zubeyr went he carried him to the Qureysh who insisted that he hand over to him (Nufayl) his son (Al-Khattaab born from the slave girl of Al-Zubeyr). Then they took him to Abdul Muttalib (as). So he said, ‘There is nothing between myself and him. Do you not know what he has done with regards to my son, so and so? But you all go to him, try to persuade him, and speak to him’. Al-Zubeyr said to them, ‘The Satan (la) has a dominion to himself (la), and that the son of this man is the son of Satan (la) and I do not feel safe that (tomorrow) he might become a leader over us. But, enter him in the door of the Masjid to me that I should take an iron and mark his face with it, and write down against him and his son that they shall not be part of our gatherings, and will not issue any orders on our children, nor will they cast arrows with us’. So they did that, and marked his face with the iron, and wrote against him a document, and that document is in our (asws) possession. So I (asws) told them: ‘Let me (asws) go or else I (asws) would bring out the document, for in it is your scandal’. So they let me (asws) go’. And a slave of the Rasool Allah (saww) died and did not leave any inheritors behind. So the sons of Al-Abbas and Abu Abdullah (asws) disputed with regards to it, and Hisham Bin Abdul Malik was performing the Pilgrimage during that year. So he sat (in Judgement) for them. So Dawood Bin Ali said, ‘The guardianship (of this legacy) is for us’, and Abu Abdullah (asws) said: ‘But, the guardianship (of this legacy) is for me (asws)’. Dawood Bin Ali said that, ‘Your (asws) father fought against Muawiya’. So he (asws) said: ‘If my (asws) father fought against Muawiya, so there was for your father an abundant share of it, then he fled after his embezzlement’. And he (asws) said; ‘By Allah (azwj)! Tomorrow I shall place upon your neck the collar of the pigeons’. Dawood Bin Ali said to him (asws), ‘This speech of yours (asws) is lower to me than the droppings of a camel in the valley of Al-Arzaq’. He (asws) said: ‘As for the valley, there is no right either for you or your father therein’. So Hisham said, ‘When it is the morning, I shall sit (in Judgement) for you’. So when it was the next morning, Abu Abdullah (asws) came out, and with him (asws) was a document in a bag, and Hisham sat (in Judgement) for them. So Abu Abdullah (asws) place the document in front of him. So when he (Hisham) read it, he said, ‘Call Jandal Al-Jaza’iy and Ukkashat Al-Zamry for me’. And these were two old men who had lived through the era of ignorance. So He threw the document towards them and said, ‘Do you two recognise these handwritings?’ They said, ‘Yes. This is the handwriting of Al-A’as Bin Umayya, and this is the handwriting of so and so for so and so from Qureysh, and this is the handwriting of Harb Bin Umayya’. So Hisham said, ‘I see that you (asws) have in your (asws) possession the writings of our forefathers’. He (asws) said: ‘Yes’. He said, ‘So I hereby judge it to be in your (asws) guardianship’. He (asws) went out saying: ‘If the scorpion returns, the shoe would be ready to crush it’. So I said, ‘May I be sacrificed for you (asws), what is this document?’ He (asws) said: ‘Nutaylat was a maid for the mother of Al-Zubeyr, and for Abu Talib (as), and Abdullah (as). So Abdul Muttalib (as) took her, and she gave birth to her son so and so (Al-Abbas)’. So Al-Zubeyr said to them, ‘We have inherited this maid from our mother and your son. This is a slave for us. So he took him to the middle of Qureysh. He said, ‘I will answer you on the condition that this son of your will not participate in a gathering, nor will he cast arrows with us’. So he wrote against them a document, and testified against them. So this is that document’.

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.