محمد بن الليث بن سعيد السرخسي أبو عبد الله

Muḥammad ibn al-Layth ibn Saʿīd al-Sarakhsī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, related to us. He said: Khārija ibn Muṣʿab related to us. He said: I heard al-Mughīth ibn Badīl say: I heard Khārija say: Abū Jaʿfar, Commander of the Believers, summoned Abū Ḥanīfa to make him chief judge. He refused him, so he imprisoned him for some days. Then he summoned him and said: “Abū Ḥanīfa! Why do you not enter our service? Why do you shun it, when men better than you have served?” Abū Ḥanīfa replied: “I am not fit—may God set you right—for judging.” He said: “You lie, Abū Ḥanīfa!” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “God is greatest! The Commander of the Believers has thus ruled that I am unfit.” He asked: “How?” He replied: “If I am lying, a liar is unfit; and if I am truthful, my excuse is clear.” Then ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd stood and said to him: “God Most High has given you the whole world. Buy yourself with part of it, and remember a night you will pass after which there is no further night.” Abū Jaʿfar became distressed and lowered his head. Al-Rabīʿ said to him: “You say this to the Commander of the Believers?” ʿAmr said: “This man has accompanied you for twenty years without offering you sincere counsel. Nothing from God’s Book or His Prophet’s practice has been acted upon at your gate.” He said: “What should I do? I summoned you, but you did not answer me.” ʿAmr replied: “Call us through your justice, and we will willingly assist you. At your gate are a thousand grievances. Redress one of them, and you will know that you are sincere.”