Bayhaqi 20195 — Evidence that judging and the other duties of rulers

Ikrimah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I came to Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) while he was reciting the Qur'an, and his eyesight was still sound then, and he was weeping. I asked: O Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), what makes you weep? May Allah make me your ransom! He said to me: "Do you know the town of Aylah?" I said: What is Aylah? He said: "Jews lived in that town, and Allah Almighty forbade them to catch fish on the Sabbath (Saturday). On the Sabbath the fish would come, very fat and plump and showing themselves openly, as if their pools were full; and when it was not the Sabbath, they could obtain fish only with toil and hardship. Some of them said to others, or some of them said: 'What if we catch them on the Sabbath and eat them on another day (what harm is there)?' So one household did that: they caught fish and roasted it, and their neighbours smelled the roasted fish. They said: 'Nothing at all has happened to so-and-so.' Then others also began to catch fish, until this became widespread in the town, and the people divided into three groups: one that ate the fish, another that forbade it, and a third that said: 'Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is going to destroy or punish with a severe punishment?' [Surah al-A'raf: 164]
The group that forbade (the evil) said: 'We warn you of the wrath of Allah, His punishment, and being swallowed up by the earth, or a rain of stones, or His other punishments. By Allah, we will not spend the night in a place where you live.' So they left the town. When morning came, they came and knocked on their doors, but no answer came. Then they brought ladders and set them against the walls; one man climbed the wall by it and called out: 'O servants of Allah! These have become monkeys; by Allah, they have tails!' He said this three times. Then he came down from the wall and opened the gate. When the people entered, the monkeys recognised their relatives, but the humans could not recognise their relatives among the monkeys. A monkey would come to its human relative and cling to him, and the human would ask: 'Are you so-and-so?' It would say yes with a nod of its head, and weep. And a female monkey would come to her human relative, and the human would ask her: 'Are you so-and-so?' She would say yes with a nod of her head, and weep. The humans would say to them: 'We kept warning you of the wrath of Allah, His punishment, being swallowed up by the earth, the distortion of forms, or Allah's other punishments.'" Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: I hear Allah Almighty saying: "We saved those who used to forbid evil, and We seized those who did wrong with a dreadful punishment because they were defiantly disobedient." [Surah al-A'raf: 165] Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: "I do not know what was done with the third group."
Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: "How many evils we see, yet we do not forbid them!" Ikrimah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I said: May Allah make me your ransom! What do you think? They did reject (the evil) and dislike it when they said: "Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is going to destroy or punish with a severe punishment?" [Surah al-A'raf: 164]. Ikrimah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: This remark of mine pleased him, and he ordered that I be clothed in two thick sheets.