unless a certain custom is observed.”
He asked, “And what is that?”
They replied, “When twelve (1) nights of this month have passed, we take a virgin girl whose parents are both alive, satisfy her parents, dress her in the finest jewelry and clothes we can find, and then throw her into this Nile.”
ʿAmr said to them, “Such a practice has no place in Islam; Islam abolishes whatever came before it.”
They let the months of Buʾnah, Abīb, and Misrā go by, yet the Nile did not flow, neither a little nor a lot, until the people considered leaving the land. ʿAmr therefore wrote to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb about the matter.
ʿUmar wrote back, “You acted correctly in what you did, and I have sent you a slip of paper enclosed in my letter (2); cast it into the Nile.” When his letter arrived, ʿAmr took the slip and found written on it:
“From the servant of Allah ʿUmar, Commander of the Believers, to the Nile of the people of Egypt. Henceforth: If you flow of your own accord and by your own command, then do not flow, for we have no need of you. But if you flow only by the order of Allah, the One, the All-Subduer—He Who makes you flow—then we ask Allah, exalted be He, to make you flow.”
He cast the slip into the Nile, and on Saturday morning they found that Allah had made the river rise sixteen cubits in a single night. Thus Allah cut off that (custom) from the people of Egypt to this very day.
Sayf ibn ʿUmar (3) said: In Dhū al-Qaʿdah of that same year—which he counts as the year 16 AH—ʿUmar (4) stationed frontier garrisons (5) around the edges of Egypt, for Heraclius had launched a naval attack on Syria and Egypt.
Ibn Jarīr (6) said: And in this year Abū Baḥriyya (7) ʿAbd Allah ibn Qays al-ʿAbdī raided Byzantine territory—said to be the first Muslim ever to enter it—returned safely, and took spoils. Others say the first to enter it was Maysara ibn Masrūq al-ʿAbsī.
Al-Wāqidī said: In that same year ʿUmar dismissed Qudāma ibn Maẓʿūn from Bahrain (and had him flogged (8) for drinking wine), appointing over Bahrain and al-Yamāma Abū Hurayra al-Dawsī (may Allah be pleased with him).
He also said: In this year the people of Kūfa complained about Saʿd in every matter, even saying that he did not know how to pray properly. ʿUmar therefore removed him and put in his place ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtbah—who had been Saʿd’s deputy—though some report that he appointed ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir (9).
Imam Aḥmad (10) said: Sufyān narrated to us from ʿAbd al-Malik, who heard it from Jābir ibn Samura. He said: The people of Kūfa complained to ʿUmar about Saʿd, saying, “He does not pray well.” Saʿd said, “Do the Bedouins say that? By Allah, I have not fallen short in performing the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ …”