except a small trickle (1), the very dregs in a vessel; and you are moving on from it to the Abode of Permanence, so move away from what lies before you now. It has reached me that if a stone were cast from the brink of Hell it would plunge for seventy autumns and still fill it—does that amaze you? It has also reached me that the span between the two leaves of a single gate of Paradise is a march of forty years, yet a day will surely come when it will be packed to overflowing. I remember myself—one of seven—standing with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when our only food was the leaves of the samur tree (2) until the corners of our mouths became ulcerated (3). I chanced upon a cloak, tore it in half, and shared it with Saʿd. Now not one of those seven remains but that he is the governor of a province, and through us the people will be tried after we are gone. This report is found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (4) in words close to these.

ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madaʾinī related that ʿUmar wrote to ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān when he dispatched him to Basra (5):

“O ʿUtbah, I have appointed you over the land of Hind—it is an exposed frontier (6) of the enemy—and I pray that Allah will protect you from what surrounds it and will aid you against it. I have also written to al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, instructing him to reinforce you with ʿArfajah ibn Harthamah. When he arrives, consult him and keep him close. Call the people to Allah: whoever responds, accept it from him; whoever refuses, impose the jizyah upon him in humility and subjugation; otherwise, let the sword strike without leniency. Fear Allah concerning the office you hold, and beware lest your soul lure you to arrogance and thereby ruin your Hereafter (7). You accompanied the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and you were honoured after humiliation and strengthened after weakness until you became a commanding ruler whose word is heard and whose command is obeyed. What a blessing—so long as you do not rise above your station or act haughtily toward those beneath you. Guard the blessing as carefully as you guard yourself from sin; the blessing, in my view, is the more perilous of the two, lest it lure you step by step (8) and deceive you, causing a fall that lands you (9) in Hellfire. I seek refuge for you and for myself with Allah from that. People have hastened toward Allah until the world was raised before their eyes and they desired it. Therefore seek the pleasure of Allah and not that of the world, and beware the fates of the wrongdoers.”

In this same year ʿUtbah captured al-Uballah in the month of Rajab—or in Shaʿbān. When ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān died that year, ʿUmar placed al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah over Basra for two years; but when the accusations against him arose, ʿUmar removed him and installed Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—may Allah be pleased with him—in his stead.

Also in this year ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb flogged his son ʿUbayd-Allāh for drinking wine, together with the group that had drunk with him.