Al-Ṭabarānī (1) reported: “Al-Miqdām ibn Dāwūd told us; Khālid ibn Nazzār told us; Hishām ibn Saʿīd told us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī who said: I asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, which people suffer the severest trials?’ He replied, ‘The prophets.’ I said, ‘Then who?’ He said, ‘Then the righteous. One of them may be tested with poverty until he possesses nothing but a single garment—in another wording, nothing but a cloak or the like—and one of them may be tried with lice until he throws the lice away. Yet he rejoices in tribulation more than in comfort.’

Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd said: ‘Al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us, from Ibn ʿAjlān, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: His family once complained to him of want, so he went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to ask something for them. He came upon him standing on the pulpit, saying: “People, the time has come for you to do without begging. Whoever seeks to remain chaste, Allah will keep him chaste; whoever seeks sufficiency, Allah will enrich him. By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, Allah has not granted a servant any provision more expansive for him than patience. Still, if you insist on asking me, I shall give you whatever I find.”’ (2) Al-Ṭabarānī also transmitted a similar report through ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār from Abū Saʿīd. (3)

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar (4) ibn al-Khaṭṭāb al-Qurashī al-ʿAdawī—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—was first of Mecca and later of Medina. He embraced Islam early, together with his father, before reaching puberty, and made the Hijrah when he was ten years old. He was deemed too young on the day of Uḥud (5), but at the Battle of the Trench he was accepted for service at the age of fifteen, and he fought in that engagement and in every campaign thereafter.

He was the full brother of Ḥafṣah bint ʿUmar, Mother of the Believers; their mother was Zaynab bint Maẓʿūn, sister of ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn.

ʿAbd Allah was of medium height, brown-skinned, with thick hair falling to his shoulders. He was strongly built, dyed his beard yellow, and kept his moustache closely trimmed. He would renew his ablution for every prayer, making sure to wash the roots of his eyes.

ʿUthmān sought to appoint him as judge, but he refused—just as his father had done. He fought at al-Yarmūk, al-Qādisiyyah, Jalūlāʾ, and the intervening engagements, and he witnessed the conquest of Egypt, where he laid out a residence for himself.