but if it is false, then it is the polished stratagem of a discerning man.
He said, “So command me, Commander of the Believers, as you wish.” ʿUmar replied, “I neither order you nor forbid you.”
A man remarked, “Commander of the Believers, how admirably he has emerged from what you put him into!” ʿUmar answered, “Because his entry and his exit are both so deft, we burdened him with what we burdened him.” (1)

Another narration states that Muʿāwiyah came out to receive ʿUmar when the latter arrived in Syria; Muʿāwiyah was in a dense cavalcade. He passed by ʿUmar while ʿUmar and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf were riding a donkey and did not notice them. Someone said to him, “You have just bypassed the Commander of the Believers.” He turned back, and when he saw ʿUmar he dismounted and began walking, while ʿUmar spoke to him until the sweat streamed from him and his complexion grew increasingly pale, and ʿUmar kept repeating to him what we have already mentioned. (2)
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf then said, “Commander of the Believers, how well he emerged from the difficulty into which you cast him!” ʿUmar replied, “That is precisely why we put him through what we put him through.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak said in his book al-Zuhd (3): Muḥammad ibn [Abī] (4) Dhīʾb related to us, from Muslim ibn Jundub, from Aslam, the freedman of ʿUmar, who said:
Muʿāwiyah came to us fair-skinned and full-bodied—indeed the fairest and most handsome of people. He set out for the Hajj with ʿUmar, who would look at him in amazement, then place his finger on Muʿāwiyah’s back, raise it the width of a sandal-strap, and say, “Bravo, bravo! Then we are the best of people if both the good of this world and the next have been combined for us.”
Muʿāwiyah said, “Commander of the Believers, may I speak? We live in a land of bath-houses, fertile countryside, and temptations.” ʿUmar replied, “Let me speak: what ails you is nothing but your pampering yourself with the choicest food and your taking breakfast so late that the sun beats on your back while those with needs stand waiting outside the door.” [He said, “Commander of the Believers, teach me so that I may comply.”] (5)

When we reached Dhū Tuwā, Muʿāwiyah produced a robe and put it on, and ʿUmar detected from it a scent like perfume. He said, “One of you sets out for the Hajj unkempt (6), and when he reaches the most sacred land of Allah he brings out two garments as though they had been steeped in perfume and puts them on!” Muʿāwiyah replied, “I only put them on so that I might enter wearing them among my kinsfolk and my people. By Allah, your rebuke has reached me both here and in Syria, and Allah knows that I have taken it to heart.” He then removed the two garments and put back on the ones in which he had assumed iḥrām. (7)

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: My father related to me, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Madani, who said: Whenever ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb saw Muʿāwiyah he would say, “This is the Chosroes of the Arabs.” (8)