In this passage from Quḍāt Qurṭuba, Khushanī reports that the jurist Muḥammad b. al-Walīd came to talk to the judge Aslam about something he needed from him. In response, instead of employing the usual formula samʿanwa-ṭāʿatan(“I hear and I obey,” i.e., I will do what you ask of me), the judge quoted Quranic verse 2:93: “We hear and we rebel” (samiʿnā wa-ʿaṣaynā), meaning that he would not do what Muḥammad wanted, as if there was something unacceptable in the request. In her chapter in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Maribel Fierro cites this report as another example of Aslam’s wit.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.