While Hārūn al-Rashīd was in Kufa, he had a dream that greatly frightened and distressed him. When Jibrīl b. Bakhtīyeshūʿ entered his presence, he asked the caliph:
– What is the matter, O Commander of the Faithful, why are you troubled?
– In my dream, I saw a hand reaching out to me from beneath this couch, and in its palm was red earth. A voice from the unseen said: “This is the earth in which Hārūn will be buried.” Jibrīl comforted him, saying:
– This is from the imaginings of your nafs (the lower self) and from confused dreams. Try to forget it, O Commander of the Faithful.
Hārūn al-Rashīd set out for Khurasan. He stopped in the city of Ṭūs. As his illness worsened, he was unable to continue his journey. He remembered the dream he had seen in Kufa, became afraid, and said to Jibrīl: – Woe to you, O Jibrīl! Do you not remember the dream I told you about?
– I remember.
Thereupon, Hārūn al-Rashīd called his servant Masrūr and gave him this command:
– Bring me some earth from this place.
Masrūr brought a handful of red earth. When Hārūn al-Rashīd saw it, he said:
– By Allah, this is the hand I saw in my dream, and this is the earth I saw in my dream.
Jibrīl says: “By Allah, within three days Hārūn passed away.” Before his death, Hārūn al-Rashīd ordered that his grave be dug in the house where he was staying. The house in the city of Ṭūs belonged to Ḥamīd b. Abī Ghānim al-Ṭāʾī. Looking at the grave that had been dug, he said:
– O son of Adam! In the end, this is where you will arrive.
After the grave was finished, he ordered that the Qur’an be recited there. They recited the Qur’an and completed it. He himself was wrapped in a sheet beside the grave. At the time of his death, he wrapped himself in the sheet and began to agonize. He did not lie down on the bed; rather, he remained sitting.
One of those present said:
– If you were to lie down, it would be better for you. Upon this, he laughed like a man who is not ill, and then said:
– Have you not heard the poet’s words?:
“I am from such a noble people that
The severity of calamities only increases their strength and sabr (patient endurance).”
Hārūn al-Rashīd died at the beginning of the month of Jumādā al-Ākhira in the year 193 AH, on a Saturday (or Sunday) night, at the age of forty-five (or forty-seven). He had ruled for twenty-three years.