should shrink from courting it; for the Prophets themselves asked their Lord to make them beloved. When Allah loves a servant, He causes others to love him, and when He detests a servant, He makes others detest him. Therefore gauge your station with Allah by the station you occupy among the people.”

They say that Saʿd set out for Iraq with four thousand men—three thousand from Yemen and one thousand from the rest of the Arabs; some report that he had six thousand. ʿUmar accompanied them from Sirār to al-Aʿwaṣ ⦗1⦘, and there he addressed the people, saying:

“Allah has set forth parables for you and varied His words so that hearts might live by them, for hearts lie dead in their chests until Allah gives them life. Whoever has learned something should benefit by it ⦗2⦘. Justice has its signs and its glad tidings. Its signs are modesty, generosity, gentleness, and forbearance; its glad tidings are mercy. Allah has appointed a gate for every affair and has provided a key for every gate. The gate of justice is reflection, and its key is asceticism. Reflection is to remember death and to prepare for it by sending forward one’s wealth. Asceticism is to take one’s rightful due from any person against whom one has a claim and to be content with simple sufficiency; for if sufficiency does not satisfy a man, nothing will enrich him.

“I stand between you and Allah, with no one between Him and me. Allah has charged me to ward off oppression from you; therefore bring your complaints to us. Whoever cannot do so himself, let him take them to someone who will convey them to us, and we shall secure his right without hesitation ⦗3⦘ ⦗4⦘.”

Saʿd then continued on to Iraq, while ʿUmar and the Muslims who were with him returned to Madinah.

When Saʿd reached the Wadi of Zarud, only a short distance separated him from meeting al-Muthanna ibn Ḥārithah, and each longed to see the other. Just then the wound al-Muthanna had received on the Day of the Bridge reopened, and he died—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him. He appointed Bashīr ibn al-Khaṣāṣiyyah to command the army after him. When news of his death reached Saʿd, he prayed for him and married his widow, Salmā.

On arriving at the military encampment, overall command passed to Saʿd; no Arab leader remained in Iraq who was not under his authority. ʿUmar sent further reinforcements until, on the day of al-Qādisiyyah, Saʿd had thirty thousand men with him—some say thirty-six thousand ⦗5⦘.

ʿUmar declared, “By Allah, I shall hurl the kings of Persia against the kings of the Arabs.” He wrote to Saʿd ordering him to appoint commanders over each tribe and an ʿarīf over every ten men ⦗6⦘, and to assemble them at al-Qādisiyyah. Saʿd carried out the command: he named the ʿurafāʾ, set chiefs over the tribes, and placed officers over the vanguards, encampments, flanks, rearguards, infantry, and cavalry, exactly as the Commander of the Believers, ʿUmar, had directed.

Sayf ⦗7⦘, transmitting from his teachers, relates: ʿUmar appointed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabīʿah al-Bāhilī to judge the people’s disputes.