Thus, the king made tremendous efforts to kill this saint. He attempted to hurl him from the peak of a mountain—but failed. He then tried to drown him in the sea—this also failed. Eventually, the saint said: “O King! If you truly wish to kill me, there is only one method. Gather all the people in an open field, tie me to the trunk of a date-palm tree, say: بِسْمِ اللہِ رَبِّ الْغُلَام — ‘In the name of Allah, the Lord of this young man’ — and then shoot an arrow at me.”

The king was delighted upon hearing this method. Immediately, the people were gathered in an open plain, a date-palm trunk was brought, and the friend of Allah was tied to it. The king placed an arrow on the bowstring, drew it, and proclaimed: بِسْمِ اللہِ رَبِّ الْغُلَام— “In the name of Allah, the Lord of this young man.” Then he fired the arrow, which struck the saint on his temple, causing his soul to depart.

When the people witnessed this event—that the king, who claimed divinity, had failed in all his attempts, and that ultimately only the name of the young man’s Lord was effective—they realised that the true Lord was not the king, but the Lord of the youth. After that, they all recited the testimony of faith and embraced the true religion.

The king was consumed with extreme fury. His false claim to divinity had been exposed, and the people had abandoned him and believed in the One and only true Lord, Allah Almighty. The enraged king commanded that trenches be dug along the roadsides and fires lit within them. Then he ordered that whoever refused to renounce their faith and accept the divinity of the king shall be thrown into the fire.

This order was carried out, and people were thrown into the flames. Then a woman arrived carrying an infant in her arms. The believing woman feared nothing for herself, but the tenderness of motherhood caused her to hesitate slightly when looking at her child. At that moment, the infant spoke: “Mother, remain steadfast. Do not fear, for indeed you are upon the true religion.”^[1]

Then the mother and child were thrown into the fire.^[2]