“Had it not been for piety—and then sound judgment—out of fear of ruin,
I would have defied every reprover in my fondness for the colt.
He has done what he had to do in days now past;
through the nights that remain no second youthful caprice will be seen from him.
There is no power except with Allah.”

Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related: Ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us from ʿUmar ibn Dharr:
A freedman of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said to him after Sulaymān’s funeral, “Why do I see you so distressed?”
He replied, “One in my situation has every reason to be distressed. There is not a single member of this community but that I wish to deliver his right to him—without anyone having to write to me about it and without his having to demand it from me.”

ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar reported: ʿUmar addressed the people, saying, “I am not better than any one of you; yet I carry the heaviest burden among you.”

Ayyūb ibn Suwayd narrated: Yūnus told us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī:
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wrote to Sālim, asking him to send an account of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s practice concerning the alms-tax. Sālim complied and added:
“If you act in your own time and with your own men as ʿUmar acted in his time and with his men, you will, in Allah’s sight, be better than ʿUmar.”

I say: This is a remarkable statement—how could anyone be better than ʿUmar? God forbid! Rather, it must be understood as hyperbole. Where is the honor that came to the religion through ʿUmar’s acceptance of Islam? Where is his presence at Badr? Where is Satan’s flight from ʿUmar? Where are ʿUmar’s conquests, east and west? Allah has appointed for everything its due measure.

Hammād ibn Zayd narrated from Abū Hāshim:
A man came to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and said, “I saw the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in a dream, with Abū Bakr on his right and ʿUmar on his left. Two men were disputing, and you were standing before him. He said to you, ‘O ʿUmar, when you act, act as these two acted.’”

ʿUmar adjured him by Allah, “Did you truly see that?” The man swore that he had, and ʿUmar wept.

Maymūn ibn Mihrān said: “Formerly Allah would look after the people by sending a prophet after a prophet; now Allah has looked after the people through ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.”