the son of the Commander of the Believers, the dearest of people to him as well. Because it is you, they would sooner let the price fall in your favor than raise it against you. Yet I am a distributor who will be questioned, so I shall still grant you more than any Qurayshī merchant ever gained: for every dirham of capital you may keep a dirham of profit.”
He then summoned the merchants, who bought what ʿAbd Allāh had taken for four hundred thousand dirhams. ʿUmar handed over eighty thousand to him and sent the remainder to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ to distribute.
Al-Ḥasan said: ʿUmar once saw a young girl reeling from malnutrition and asked, “Who is this?” ʿAbd Allāh replied, “One of your daughters.” ʿUmar said, “Which of my daughters?” He answered, “My daughter.” ʿUmar asked, “What has brought her to the state I see?” He said, “Your policy—you do not spend on her.” ʿUmar replied, “By Allah, I do not provide for your children. Go and earn for them, man!”
Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn narrated: A relative by marriage came to ʿUmar and asked him for money from the public treasury. ʿUmar rebuked him, saying, “Would you have me meet Allah as a treacherous king?!” Some time later he gave him ten thousand dirhams from his own personal wealth.
Hudhayfa said: “By Allah, I know of no man who feared no one’s blame for the sake of Allah except ʿUmar.”
Hudhayfa also related: “We were sitting with ʿUmar when he said, ‘Which of you remembers the statement of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, about tribulation (fitna)?’ I replied, ‘I do.’ He said, ‘You are indeed bold.’ I said, ‘A man’s tribulation in regard to his family, wealth, and children is expiated by prayer, fasting, charity, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong.’ He said, ‘I am not asking about that; I am asking about the tribulation that surges like the waves of the sea.’ I said, ‘You have nothing to fear from it; between you and it stands a closed door.’ He asked, ‘Will the door be broken or opened?’ I said, ‘It will be broken.’ He said, ‘Then it will never be closed again.’
We later asked Hudhayfa, ‘Did ʿUmar know who the door was?’ He said, ‘Yes, just as he knows that before tomorrow there is today…’