Thread by @shahanSean

A famous story is told about the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd's meeting with the pietist scholar Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ while on Ḥajj. Hārūn sought out many scholars—like Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī—but only Fuḍayl tried to evade him. But once they met ...

Fuḍayl reproached him for regarding the caliphate as a blessing (niʿmah)—it is rather a tribulation (balāʾ), he says.
Fuḍayl then recounts to the caliph a pious tale about the Umayyad caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, famed for his piety. When the caliphate fell to him, ʿUmar..

gathered around him three pious scholars to admonish him before he embarked on his rule: Sālim ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, and Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah al-Kindī. Each man gave the caliph his somber advice.

Sālim said: “If you wish to be saved, fast from worldly pursuits and let naught but death break your fast.”
Ibn Kaʿb said: “If you wish to be saved from God’s wrath, regard the aged among Muslims like a father, the adult like a brother, and the youngest as a son...

Honor your father, elevate your brother, and show your son compassion.”
Rajāʾ said: “If you wish to be saved from God’s wrath, desire for the Muslims whatsoever you desire for your self, and hate what for them what you hate for your self. Then die if you want.”

After finishing the tale, Fuḍayl said to Hārūn al-Rashīd, “I told you this because I fear for you greatly, because you have no man who will provide you counsel with words such as these.” And upon hearing these words the caliph wept.

Original Arabic is here:
google.com/books/edition/…

On Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ: academia.edu/8743849/_God_s…ʿIyāḍ_and_the_Transition_from_Caliphal_to_Prophetic_Sunna_in_Islamic_Cultures_Islamic_Contexts_Essays_in_Honor_of_Professor_Patricia_Crone_ed_Behnam_Sadeghi_Asad_Q_Ahmed_Adam_Silverstein_and_Robert_Hoyland_Leiden_Brill_2014_195_228