Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

At another occasion a similar incident took place with another Khalīfah. Sulaymān
ibn Yasār 1 came to visit Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik and the following transpired:
يا سليمان،‏ الذي تولى كبره من هو؟ قال:‏ عبد الله بن أبي.‏ قال:‏ كذبت!‏ هو علي.‏ قال أمير المؤمنين أعلم
بما يقول.‏ فذخل الزهري فقال:‏ يا بن شهاب،‏ من الذي تولى كبره؟ قال:‏ ابن أبي.‏ قال:‏ كذبت!‏ هو علي.‏
فقال:أنا أكذب ل أبا لك.‏ والله لو نادى مناد من السماء أن الله أحل الكذب ما كذبت!‏ ثم روى عن عائشة
باسانيده أن الذي تولى كبره عبد الله بن أبي.‏ وعندئذ قال هشام:‏ إنا أن نهيج الشيخ يهج الشيخ.‏
Hishām thus said to him, “O Sulaymān, who is the one who was responsible
for its major share?”
He said, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy.”
“You are lying! It was ʿAlī,” he retorted.
He thus said, “Amīr al-Muʾminīn knows betters what he is saying.”
Subsequently al-Zuhrī entered, so he asked him, “Who is the one who was
responsible for its major share?”
He replied, “Ibn Ubayy.”
“You are lying,” responded the Khalīfah.
To which al-Zuhrī said, “Would I lie, may you lose your father. By Allah if
an announcer has to announce from the heavens that Allah has made lying
permissible I would still not lie.”
He then went onto narrate from ʿĀʾishah J that the one who was
responsible for most of the propaganda was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy.
1 Sulaymān ibn Yasār al-Hilālī, their client, Abū Ayyūb al-Madanī, the freed slave of Maymūnah J.
He was one of the seven prominent jurist of Madīnah. He met more than ten Ṣaḥābah M. Some
scholars would hold him in higher esteem than Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab. He was reliable in whatever he
narrated. He passed away in 107 A.H. His narrations appear in the six books. See: al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā
5/174; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 12/100; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 4/444; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 4/199.
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