and he had never bestowed that distinction on anyone before me. Yet the next morning the tribe of Asad were saying, “He does not know how to pray”—and in another report: “He has misled me about Islam”—“then I have surely failed and my deeds have come to nothing.” (1)
ʿUmar then said to Saʿd, “Whom have you left in charge of Kufah?”
He answered, “ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿItbān.” (2) ʿUmar therefore confirmed him as deputy-governor (3) of Kufah. He was an elderly notable among the Companions, an ally of the Ansar’s clan of Banu al-Hubli. Saʿd remained removed from office—through neither weakness nor treachery—and threatened that faction, almost bringing punishment down on them; but he desisted, fearing that thereafter no one (4) would dare complain against a governor.
To the main point: the Persians converged from every distant valley upon the plain of Nahavand until they numbered one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men. Their commander was al-Fayruzān—some say Bundar, others Dhu ʾl-Ḥājib. They roused one another, saying, “Muḥammad, who brought religion to the Arabs, never entered our lands, nor did Abu Bakr after him venture into the heart of our kingdom. But ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, whose reign has grown lengthy, has violated our sanctity and taken our territories. Not content with that, he has attacked us in the very core of our realm and seized the royal seat; he will not stop until he drives you from your homeland.” They therefore pledged and covenanted to march on Basra and Kufah so as to occupy ʿUmar, bound themselves with solemn oaths, and set their pact in writing.
When Saʿd wrote of this to ʿUmar—Saʿd having been dismissed in the meantime—he then explained to ʿUmar in person (5) the alliance they had forged against him and that their force now stood at one hundred and fifty thousand. A further letter arrived from Kufah, sent by ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿItbān and borne by Qurayb Ẓafar al-ʿAbdī, reporting that the enemy had gathered, hostile and muttering against Islam and its people, and advising: “Commander of the Believers, the sound policy is to march out and forestall the expedition they intend against our lands.”
ʿUmar asked the courier, “What is your name?”
He replied, “Qurayb.”
“Son of whom?”
“Son of Ẓafar.”
ʿUmar took this as a good omen and said, “Victory (ẓafar) is near.”
He then ordered the proclamation, “Gather for prayer!” The people assembled, and the first to enter the mosque for that purpose was Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas; ʿUmar likewise regarded this as a favorable sign. He ascended the pulpit in the afternoon, and when everyone was present he said, “This is a day whose…"