90 – Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Madani narrated to us; he said: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated—having heard his father relate—from Nuʿaym ibn Abī Hind, that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb would hand over to his wife some perfume that belonged to the Muslims. She would sell it: when she placed it on the scales she might add a little or take off a little, biting off pieces with her teeth so as to make the weight exact. Some of it stuck to her finger, so she put her finger in her mouth and then wiped it on her head-covering.

ʿUmar came in and said, “What is this fragrance?” She told him what had happened. He said, “Are you adorning yourself with the Muslims’ perfume?” He thereupon seized her head-scarf, rubbed it in the dust, smelled it, poured water over it, then rubbed it in the dust again—doing so until he thought the scent had vanished.

Later the woman perfume-seller came once more. She sold her some perfume and weighed it for her; a bit clung to her finger, so she put her finger in her mouth and then into the dust. The perfume-seller exclaimed, “That is not what you did the first time!” She answered, “Do you not know what I suffered from him? I went through such-and-such because of it.”