Smaller Than a Cat

Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām walked in and met with the leader of the Tatars — an emperor who was a powerful, mighty leader.^** Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām walked in to meet him, and this man was famous for his power. He was a bloodthirsty leader of the Tatars who attacked the Muslim world and destroyed everything he saw; in Baghdad they sacked it and killed two million. Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām went in with his students to meet this leader of the Tatars.

He started speaking to him, and then he started raising his voice, pointing his finger in his face, threatening him with the Hellfire, threatening him with the punishment of Allah, and making duʿāʾ against him. The students who had come with al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām started wrapping up their clothes. Why? They were waiting for the sword to cut off his head and for the blood to splash all over the place. So they were wrapping up their clothes so that the blood would not splash on them.

When they walked out, they went to al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām and said: what were you doing? How were you able to do that? He said: when I pictured the greatness of Allah in front of my eyes, this man became smaller than a cat. When I pictured the greatness of Allah, this man — this mighty, powerful military general — became smaller than a cat. That is the khashyah of Allah (swt).

So these two men said: just break the door open, and they are going to lose. And they said: and put your trust in Allah, if you are believers indeed.