100 - ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasayn ibn Abī Maryam narrated to me, from Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Mālik, Mubārak ibn Faḍāla narrated to us, from al-Ḥasan: That a man called ʿUqayb used to worship God Almighty upon a mountain. There was in that time a tyrant who tortured people with exemplary punishments. So ʿUqayb said: "If I were to go down to this tyrant and command him to be conscious of God, that would be more obligatory upon me." So he came down from the mountain and said to him: "O man, fear God."

The tyrant said to him, "O dog! Does the likes of you command me to fear God? I will surely inflict upon you a punishment with which no one in the worlds has ever been punished!"

He said: So he ordered that he be flayed alive from his feet to his head, and he was flayed. When the flaying reached his belly, he uttered a groan, so God revealed to him: "O ʿUqayb, be patient; I shall bring you out from the abode of sorrow into the abode of joy, and from the abode of distress into the abode of spaciousness." When the flaying reached his face, he cried out, so God revealed to him: "O ʿUqayb, you have made the inhabitants of My heavens and the inhabitants of My earth weep, and you have distracted My angels from glorifying Me. If you cry out a third time, I shall surely pour down torment upon them relentlessly." So he endured patiently until his face was flayed, out of fear that torment would seize his people.