this business to someone who is more eager for it than you?”

He became angry and rose to leave. Ibn al-Zubayr caught the edge of his cloak and said, “Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, all he said was that you would be given money if I pledged allegiance to you.”

Ibn ʿUmar answered, “By Allah, I will neither pay nor accept anything for it, and I will not take it except with the Muslims’ full consent.” (1)

The author says: The pledge almost settled upon him that day, even though such figures as Imam ʿAlī and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ were present. Had he been acclaimed, not two people would have differed about him; yet Allah protected him and chose what was best for him.

Misʿar narrated—from ʿAlī ibn al-Aqmar—that Marwān said to Ibn ʿUmar, “Will you not go to Syria so they can give you their allegiance?”

He replied, “What, then, should I do with the people of Iraq?”

Marwān said, “You would fight them with the Syrians.”

Ibn ʿUmar answered, “By Allah, it would not please me that all the people pledge allegiance to me except the folk of Fadak—such that I must fight them and one man among them is killed.”

Marwān then recited:
I see a turmoil whose kettles are boiling,
And after Abū Laylā the realm will go to whoever prevails.

ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd transmitted something similar. (2)

He said this when Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah died. (3) Once Marwān felt assured of Ibn ʿUmar’s stance, he hurried to Syria, fought, and seized control of Syria and then Egypt.

Abū ʿAwanah narrated—from Mughīrah, from Fiṭr—that a man came to Ibn ʿUmar and said, “No one has been worse for the community than you.”

He asked, “Why?”

The man replied, “Had you wished, not two people would have differed about you.”

Ibn ʿUmar said, “I would not like the caliphate to come to me while one man is saying ‘No’ and another ‘Yes.’”