History of Khulafah Rashideen by Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti - translated by Abdassamad Clarke

Ibn Sacd narrated that al-Ahnaf ibn Qays said: We were sitting at "Umar’s door and a slave girl passed by, and they said, ‘The concubine of the Amir al-Mu’minin! He said, ‘She is not the concubine of the Amir al-Mu’minin, and she is not permitted to him. She is of the property of Allah.’ So we said, ‘Then what is permitted to him of the property of Allah, exalted is He?’ He said, ‘There is only permitted to cUmar of the property of Allah two garments, a garment for the winter and a garment for the summer, that with which I can perform the Hajj and the cUmrah (i.e. an ihram), my sustenance and the sustenance of my family, as a man of Quraysh who is not the wealthiest of them nor the poorest, then I am, after that, a man among the Muslims.’ Khuzaymah ibn Thabit said, ‘Whenever cUmar appointed a governor, he wrote to him and made a condition on him that he should not ride a birdhaun (a large heavy non-Arabian horse from Asia Minor or Greece), nor eat delicacies, nor dress in finery, nor lock his door against the needy. If he did that, it would be permitted to punish him.’ Tkrimah ibn Khalid and others said: Hafsah, "Abdullah and others spoke to "Umar and said, ‘If only you were to eat wholesome food it would strengthen you upon the truth.’ He asked, Are you all of this view?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘I have learnt what your sincere advice is. However, I have left my two companions on a highway, and if I abandon their highway I will not reach them in the house.’ He (Tkrimah) said: An affliction befell the people one year, and that year he did not eat clarified butter nor fat.

Ibn Mulaykah said: cUtbah ibn Farqad spoke to cUmar about his food and he said, ‘Mercy on you! Should I eat up my wholesome sweet things in my worldly life and seek to enjoy myself with them?’ Al-Hasan said: cUmar entered in upon his son cAsim when he was eating meat and he said, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘We had a craving for it.’ He said, ‘Every time you crave something, do you eat it? It is sufficient wasteful extravagance for a man that he eats everything for which he has an appetite.’ Aslam said: cUmar said, ‘There occurred to my heart a desire for fresh fish.’ He (Aslam) said: Yarfa’ mounted his camel and rode four miles there, four miles back, buying a basketful and bringing it back. Then he went to his camel, washed it, and went to cUmar.

He said, ‘Let us go and I will look at the camel.’ He said, ‘Did you forget to wash this sweat beneath its ears? Have you tormented an animal for the appetite of cUmar? No! by Allah! cUmar will not taste of your basket.’ Qatadah said: cUmar used to dress, while he was khalifah, with a garment of wool patched in parts with leather, and he would go around in the markets with a whip over his shoulder with which he would correct people. He would pass bits of rags and pieces of date-stones, which he would stumble on unexpectedly, and he would throw them into people’s houses for them to use.

Anas said: I saw between cUmar’s shoulder-blades, four patches in his shirt. Abu cUthman an-Nahdi said: I saw cUmar wearing a waistwrapper patched with leather. cAbdullah ibn cAmir ibn Rabicah said: I performed the Hajj with cUmar and he did not pitch a tent of goat’s hair nor of wool. He used to throw the upper part of his ihram and his leather mat over a bush and seek shelter underneath it. cAbdullah ibn cIsa said: There were two dark furrows in cUmar’s face from his weeping. Al-Hasan said: cUmar used to pass by an ayah in his wird (daily portion set aside to recite) and he would fall down (in a faint) until he revived after some days. Anas said: I entered a walled garden and heard cUmar saying, while there was a wall between us, <cUmar ibn al-Khattab, Amir al-Muminin. Well done! Well done! By Allah, you will fear Allah, Ibn al-Khattab or Allah will punish you.’ cAbdullah ibn cAmir ibn Rabicah said: I saw ' Umar take up a straw from the ground and say, ‘I wish I was this straw. I wish I was nothing. I wish that my mother had not given birth to me.’ cAbdullah ibn cUmar ibn Hafs said: cUmar carried a skin full of water upon his neck. Someone spoke to him about that and he said, ‘My self was filling me with conceit and I wished to humble it.’ Muhammad ibn Sirin said: An in-faw of cUmar’s came to see him and asked him to give him something from the bait al-mal and cUmar refused him and said, ‘Do you want me to meet Allah as a treacherous King?’ Then he gave him from his own property ten thousand dirhams. An-Nakhaci said: cUmar used to trade while he was khalifah. Anas said: cUmar’s stomach rumbled from eating olive oil the year of the drought - he had forbidden himself clarified butter — and he tapped on his stomach with his finger and said, ‘There is nothing else for us, until the people have the means of living.’ Sufyan ibn cUyaynah said: cUmar ibn al- Khattab said, ‘The person I like most is the one who points out to me my defects.’ Aslam said: I saw cUmar ibn al-Khattab taking hold of the ear of the horse, taking hold of his own ear with the other hand, and leaping up on the back of the horse. Ibn cUmar said: I never saw cUmar become angry, and then Allah was mentioned in his presence or he was made to fear, or a person would recite an ayah from the Qur’an in his presence, but that he stopped short of what he meant to do. Bilal said to Aslam, ‘How do you find "Umar?’ He said, ‘The best of people, except that when he becomes angry it is a mighty matter.’ Bilal said, ‘If I was with him when he became angry, I would recite Qur’an to him until his anger went.’ AI-Ahwas ibn Hakim said, narrating from his father: cUmar was brought meat dressed with clarified butter and he refused to eat the two of them. He said, ‘Both of them are seasonings.’ All of the foregoing traditions are from Ibn Sacd.

Ibn Sacd narrated that al-Hasan said: cUmar said, ‘It is an easy thing by which I put right a people, that I exchange them an amir in place of an amir!'