there is a caravan whose travellers have been stranded by the night; come with me to them.”

We reached them and found a woman with several children. A pot was set upon the fire while her youngsters were crying aloud.

ʿUmar said, “Peace be upon you, people of the light.”
She replied, “And peace be upon you.”
He asked, “May I approach?”
She said, “Come nearer—for good—or leave us be.”
He drew close and said, “What is the matter with you?”
She answered, “The night and the cold have overtaken us.”
He said, “Then why are these children wailing so?” (1)
She said, “Because of hunger.”
He asked, “And what is in the pot?”
She replied, “Only water with which I distract them until they fall asleep. Allah will judge between us and ʿUmar.”

ʿUmar wept, then hurried to the public grain storehouse. He brought out a sack of flour and a bag of fat and said, “O Aslam, place this on my back.”

I said, “I will carry it for you.”
He responded, “Will you carry my burden on the Day of Resurrection?” So he hoisted it (2) onto his own back and we went back to the woman (3). He set down the load, poured some flour into the pot, added the fat, and began blowing beneath the kettle, the smoke curling through his beard for a while.

Then he lifted it from the fire and said, “Bring me a dish.” It was brought, and he ladled the food into it (4), placed it before the children, and said, “Eat.” They ate until they were satisfied, while the woman kept praying for him—she did not know who he was. He stayed with them until the little ones had fallen asleep (5), then supplied them with provisions and departed.

As we walked away he said to me, “O Aslam, it was hunger that kept them awake and made them weep.”

It is also related that ʿAli ibn Abi Ṭalib (may Allah be pleased with him) once saw ʿUmar running toward the outskirts of Madinah and asked, “Where are you going, Commander of the Believers?”
He replied, “A camel from the charity herd has strayed, and I am after it.”
ʿAli said, “You have exhausted the caliphs who will come after you.”

Another report states that he saw a slave-girl tottering from hunger and asked, “Who is this?”
ʿAbd Allah’s daughter said, “She is my daughter.”
He asked, “What is wrong with her?” She said, “You withhold what is in your hand from us, and so this befalls us, as you see.”
He said, “O servant of Allah, between me and you is the Book of Allah. By Allah, I give you only what Allah has allotted to you. Do you want me to grant you what is not yours and thus become a traitor?” This was narrated by al-Zuhri.

[On the appellation of ʿUmar as ‘Commander of the Believers’]

Al-Waqidi (6) said: Abu Ḥazrah (7) Yaʿqub ibn Mujāhid related to us, from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from Abu ʿAmr, who said:
I asked ʿĀʾishah, “Who named ʿUmar al-Farūq (Commander of the Believers)?”
She replied, “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘He is the Commander of the Believers.’” (8)