Saʿd—whom ʿUmar had appointed over Hims—remained there for a full year without a single report reaching the Caliph. ʿUmar therefore wrote to him: “Come at once with whatever revenue from the state booty (fayʾ) you have collected.”

So he packed his satchel and his wooden bowl, slung his water-flask over his shoulder, picked up his staff (1), and set out on foot. He entered Madinah gaunt and dust-covered, his hair grown long. “Peace be upon you, Commander of the Believers!” he said.

ʿUmar asked, “What is your condition?”

He replied, “Am I not sound in body, with the world still before me?”

Thinking he had brought money, ʿUmar said, “You came here walking?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Was there no one who would give you an animal to ride?”

“They did not, and I did not ask them.”

“Poor Muslims they are,” ʿUmar remarked.

“O ʿUmar,” he retorted, “Allah has forbidden you to backbite!”

ʿUmar then asked, “What did you do with the funds?”

“Whatever I collected I placed where it belonged; had any of it been due to you, I would have brought it,” he said.

ʿUmar ordered, “Renew ʿUmayr’s commission.”

But he answered, “I will never again work for you or for anyone else. I once said to a Christian, ‘May Allah disgrace you.’”

He then walked off to his house, several miles outside Madinah. ʿUmar said, “I fear he is hiding something.”

He sent a man with one hundred gold dinars and said, “Stay with ʿUmayr as though you are his guest. If you see any sign of wealth, report back; if you find him in hardship, give him this hundred.”

The man went and found ʿUmayr delousing his shirt. He greeted him, and ʿUmayr said, “Come in.”

He stayed with him and asked, “How is the Commander of the Believers?”

ʿUmayr replied, “He beat one of his sons for an indecent act, and the boy died.”

The visitor remained three nights; there was nothing for them to eat except a single barley loaf, which they gave him while they themselves went hungry.

At last he said, “You have left us starving.” He produced the gold coins and handed them to ʿUmayr, who cried out, “I have no need of them….”