These are indeed my instruments. Saw your friend with your dirhams (gold coins) and reap those who are hostile to you with your sword.¹
`Abdul Malik approved this policy and in 74 AH /887 CE he appointed Hajjāj as the governor of Kufa and Basra, In his first encounter with them and in a warning sermon to the people Hajjāj said:
“Verily I see heads ripe enough to be plucked and I am undertaking this task. It seems as if I am looking at blood gushing out of the turbans and the beards…
Know that I will not promise anything, unless I carry it out to full term; I do not utter anything unless I fulfill it; I will not come close unless I find out and will not stay far unless I hear. Therefore, avoid shouting, gatherings, demonstrations, playing champions and listening to every individual! What is happening to you, O people of Iraq? O separatists? O people of hypocrisy and vulgar morals? Verily you are inhabitants of a town that [God said] was secure and peaceful. Its provision came abundantly from every place, but it was ungrateful toward God’s blessings, so He made it taste hunger and fear because of what they used to do.²
Know that my sword will soon be satiated by your blood and it will peel off your skin. Therefore, whoever wishes, should preserve his blood!” ³

the Ahwāz region against the central government. The only place that could dispatch military troops to the fronts was Kufa, but the people did not comply and refused to go to battle. In an inciting sermon, `Abdul Malik sought a solution from his dignitaries and close companions, by asking them:
فمن ینتدب لهم منکم بسیفٍ قاطع وسنان لامع؟Who will volunteer against them with a cutting sword and a piercing spear?<sup>1</sup>
All remained silent. Hajjāj ibn Yusuf who had recently suppressed `Abdullah ibn Zubair in Mecca stood up and declared his readiness, but `Abdul Malik did not accept. Referring to the difficulty of dispatching troops to the Ahwāz front, he asked them to choose volunteers from among their most powerful troops to Iraq for the battle against the Azāriqa army. Here again, the only one who volunteered was Hajjāj ibn Yusuf.
Interestingly, `Abdul Malik wonders how Hajjāj wants to have such rebellious and unsteady people to obey, and thus asked him:
ان لکل أمیر آلة وقلائد، فما آلتک وقلائدک؟Every commander has instruments and leashes. What are your instruments and leashes?²
And Hajjāj replied, “The tongue of the sword and the instruments of violence!” He would talk to them with the language of the sword and would raise whips of violence. He said that he would spread the policy of threat and allurement and by doing this he would uproot the opposition:
فمن نازعني قصمته ومن دنا منّي أکرمته، ومن نأی عنّي طلبته ومن ثبت لی طاعنته ومن ولّی عنّي لحقته ومن أدرکته قتله... إنّ آلتي... ازرع بدرهمک من یوالیک، واحصد بسیفک من یعادیک.I will destroy anyone who fights against me and honor anyone who shall approach me. I will chase anyone who runs away from me, harm anyone who resists me and trace those who turn their back on me, so when I find them, I will kill them.