Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 13824 — when death approached Sayyiduna

Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Sa'id narrated that when death approached Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said to Yazid bin Mu'awiyah: "I have smoothed the land for you and laid the people out before you, and I fear no one for you except the people of the Hijaz. If anything about them makes you suspicious, send Muslim bin Uqbah al-Murri to them, for I have tested him more than once and have found none equal to him in obedience and sincere loyalty." Then, when news reached Yazid bin Mu'awiyah of Ibn al-Zubayr's opposition and of his calling people to himself, he summoned Muslim bin Uqbah al-Murri, who had by then been struck with paralysis, and said to him: "The Commander of the Believers charged me during his illness that if anything about the people of the Hijaz made me suspicious, I should send you to them, and I have become suspicious." He said: "I am just as the Commander of the Believers thought. Tie the banner (of command) for me and prepare the armies." The narrator said: So he reached Madinah and declared it lawful (for plunder) for three days. Then he called its people to pledge allegiance to Yazid on the basis that they were slaves of his, both in obedience to Allah and in disobedience to Him. They all accepted this except one man of Quraysh whose mother was a slave woman. It was said to him: "Pledge allegiance to Yazid on the basis that you are a slave, both in obedience to Allah and in disobedience to Him." He said: "No, rather in obedience to Allah." He refused to accept this from him and killed him. The man's mother swore an oath that if Allah gave her power over Muslim, alive or dead, she would burn him with fire. The narrator said: When Muslim bin Uqbah left Madinah, his illness grew severe and he died. So the mother of that Qurashi man went out with some of her slaves to Muslim's grave and ordered that it be dug open from the side of his head. When they reached him, they saw a great serpent coiled around his neck, holding the tip of his nose and sucking it. The narrator said: The people drew back from him in fear and said: "O our mistress, turn back; Allah has sufficed you against his evil (that is, saved you from it)," and they told her the whole matter. She said: "No, not until I fulfil the promise I made to Allah." Then she said: "Dig for me from the side of the two feet." They dug, and saw that the serpent had wrapped its tail around his two legs. The narrator said: She moved aside and prayed two rak'ahs, then said: "O Allah, if You know that I became angry with Muslim bin Uqbah today only for Your sake, then clear the way between me and him." The narrator said: Then she took up a stick, went to the serpent's tail and stirred it, and it slipped out from the back of his head and left the grave. Then she gave the order, and he was taken out of the grave and burned with fire.