and that between today and tomorrow there is tonight—I conveyed to him a report in which there is no error.” Masrūq then asked, “Who is the door?” He answered, “The door is ʿUmar.” Recorded by al-Bukhārī.

Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf narrated: The treasures of Chosroes were brought to ʿUmar. ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Arqam said, “Will you put them in the public treasury until you divide them?” ʿUmar replied, “No, by Allah, I will not shelter them under a roof until I have distributed them.” He placed the hoard in the middle of the mosque, and they kept watch over it through the night. At dawn he uncovered it and saw so much red and white metal that it seemed to sparkle. He wept. My father said to him, “What makes you weep, Commander of the Believers? By Allah, this is a day of gratitude and joy!” He answered, “Woe to you! Wealth like this is never granted to a people without enmity and hatred being cast among them.”

Aslam, the freedman of ʿUmar, related: ʿUmar appointed another of his freedmen to oversee the protected pasture and said to him, “O Hunayy, hold your wing back from harming the Muslims, and beware the supplication of the oppressed, for it is answered. Admit the owner of a small herd and the owner of a lone animal, but keep away the livestock of Ibn ʿAwf and Ibn ʿAffān; if their animals perish they can return to their farmland and date-palms, whereas if the owner of a small herd loses his animals he will come to me with his children and say, ‘Commander of the Believers, will you abandon them?—may you be bereft!’ By Allah, giving them water and pasture is easier for me than gold and silver. Yet, by Allah, they think I have wronged them, though this is their own land: they fought for it in the time of ignorance and embraced Islam upon it. By Him in whose hand is my soul, were it not for the mounts I equip for the cause of Allah, I would not have set aside from their land even a handspan.” Recorded by al-Bukhārī.