Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

ما بقيت حرمة إل وقد ارتكبها الحجاج
There is no sanctity which Ḥajjāj has not violated. 1
If this was the brazenness, the blatant contempt and the crude interaction he
had with the Ṣaḥābah M, despite them enjoying great reverence amongst
the people, then what would his interaction with those besides them be like?
People whose merits could never match the merits of Ṣaḥābah M and whose
grandeur could never match their grandeur.
Hence, a poet who was stricken by intense fear due to Hajjāj apprehending him
describes his situation in the following way:
كأن فؤادي بين أظفار طائر
من الخوف في جو السماء محلق
حذار امرئ قد كنت أعلم أنه
متى ما يعد من نفسه الشر يصدق
كأن فؤادي بين أظفار طائر
من الخوف في جو السماء محلق
حذار امرئ قد كنت أعلم أنه
متى ما يعد من نفسه الشر يصدق
It is as though, due to fear, my heart was between the claws of a bird which
was flying in the sky
Beware of the person who I know to be such that when he threatens you of
evil he will deliver on his threat. 2
Nonetheless, the fear of losing leadership was what had overwhelmed the
Umayyads. It was the mere thought that had motivated many of their actions
and by extension the actions of their governors. People had two contentions
regarding their dynasty, each one inseparable from the other:
The first contention: The rule of the Umayyads itself, which for an extended
period of time continued to encounter a legal crisis which the Umayyads tried to
impose upon those who denied it.
1 Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah 6/489; Tārīkh al-Islam 6/324; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 9/132.
2 Taʾwīl Mukhtalif al-Ḥadīth p. 347; Bughyah al-Ṭalab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab 5/2061; Kashf al-Mushkil 2/143.
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