101 - ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to me, from Abū Yazīd al-Raqqī, from Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, that he was asked about commanding [good] and forbidding [evil], and he did not order that, then he said: “If you endure as the Israelite endured, then how excellent it is.” It was said to him: “And how was the Israelite?” He said: “There were three men who gathered and said: ‘This man is doing such-and-such,’ meaning their king. Then they said: ‘Let one of us go to him, be alone with him in secret, and command him and forbid him.’ So one of them went, entered upon him, commanded him, and forbade him. The king said: ‘Do I see you here?’ And he ordered him to be imprisoned, so the news reached the other two. They said: ‘Now it has become obligatory.’ So one of the two came to him and said: ‘O man! A man came to you and commanded you and forbade you, so you ordered him imprisoned.’ The king said: ‘I see that you must be his companion! However, I will not do to you what I did to him.’ So he ordered him [to be punished], and he was beaten until he was killed. Then the news reached the third man, so he said: ‘Now it has become obligatory.’ He went to him and said to him: ‘O man! A man came to you, commanded you, and forbade you, so you imprisoned him. Then the other came to you, so you beat him until you killed him.’ The king said: ‘I see that you must be his companion! However, I will not do to you what I did to him.’ So he ordered him, and a stake was driven through his ear into the ground in the sun, with the heat of the sun above him and below him. They tried to get him to say something—a sort of apology to the king—but he refused.” Abū Yazīd said: Some of them said: “Yet if one of you were merely rebuked, he would say: ‘May God make me your ransom!’”