Abdullah Ibn Bazzaaz narrates:
Hameed and I were known to each other. One day at the time of Dhuhr of the month of Ramadhan and dressed to travel, I went to his place. When he was informed that I had come to meet him, he asked someone to bring me before him.
Entering the house, I found him inside. Greeting him, I seated myself, whereupon food was brought before me. He washed his hands and ordered me to do likewise so that we could have our food. I thought to myself: I am in a state of fast.
He said to me: Eat the food.
I said: O’ Chief! It is the month of Ramadhan and I am not sick (so as to be exempted from fasting). Hearing this, he began to weep and proceeded to eat his food.
When he had finished, I enquired: Why did you weep while eating your food?
He explained:
One night during the time when Haroon al-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph, ruled over the city of Toos, he summoned me. When I had arrived before him, he raised his head and looking at me, said: “In what measure do you obey the Caliph?” I said: “I obey him with my life and wealth”. He then lowered his head and permitted me to return.
Hardly had I returned to my house when the Caliph’s messenger arrived and said: The Caliph wants to see you.
I thought to myself: “Perhaps he has decided to kill me” and so recited: Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raajiu’n.
When I had presented myself before him, he raised his head and asked: How much is your obedience to your Caliph?
I replied: With my life, wealth, wife and children.
Hearing this he smiled and granted me permission to return home. I had hardly returned home before the Caliph’s messenger arrived once again and said: The Caliph summons you.
This time when I came before him, he asked: How much do you obey your king?
I replied: By my life, wealth, wife, children and religion!
This time the Caliph laughed and said: Take this sword and comply with what this slave has to tell you.
The slave led me to a house whose door was locked. He opened the door and I entered inside with him. Looking around I witnessed that it contained three rooms, which were locked, and one well which lay in the middle of the courtyard.
When the slave opened one of the rooms, I observed that it contained twenty people of the saadaat(descendants of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny)), young and old, fettered and in chains.
The slaved instructed: Kill them.
As per his instruction, I killed all of them – the saadaat and the children of Ali (peace be upon him) and Fatimah (peace be upon her).
When I had killed them, the slave pushed all their bodies into the well. He then opened the door to the second room and brought out another twenty saadaat to the mouth of the well and I killed them too.
Then opening the third room, he brought another group of twenty and I began to sever their heads from their bodies. I had severed the heads of nineteen persons from this group, when the last person, an old man with overgrown hair (due to his protracted stay in prison) said to me: O’ Evil one! May you be accursed! What pretext would you have on the Day of Judgment when you shall stand before our grandfather the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) after having killed sixty of his children.
Hearing this, a sudden tremor ran through my arms and body. The slave looked at me and said: Kill him. I killed him and the slave hurled his body into the well.
O’ Abdullah! After having killed sixty persons from the descendants of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) how can prayers and fasts ever be of any benefit to me? I am certain that my abode is the fire of Hell. ( Kaifar-e-Kirdaar, vol. 1, pg. 302; U’yoon Akhbaar al-Ridha, vol. 1, pg. 109 )