Here begins the biography of the renowned imam ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (may Allah have mercy on him).

(1) He is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf, Abū Ḥafṣ al-Qurashī al-Umayyī—well known as the Commander of the Believers. His mother was Umm ʿĀṣim Laylā bint ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him).

He was nicknamed “the Scarred One (Ashajj) of the Banū Marwān.” People used to say, “The Ashajj and the Nāqiṣ are the two most just men of the Banū Marwān.” He is the Ashajj, and the Nāqiṣ will be mentioned later.

ʿUmar was a distinguished tābiʿī. He transmitted hadith from Anas ibn Mālik, al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd, and Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām—who, though a Companion, was still young—as well as from many of the tābiʿūn; and a host of tābiʿūn and others narrated from him.

Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “I regard none of the tābiʿūn’s statements as authoritative proof except the statement of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.” (2)

He received the oath of allegiance for the caliphate after his cousin Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, by Sulaymān’s explicit designation, as noted earlier.

It is said that he was born in the year 61 AH, the same year in which Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) was killed in Egypt; several authorities state this. Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (3) said he was born in 63 AH, while others held that he was born in 59 AH. Allah knows best.

He had a number of brothers, but those born to both his father and mother were Abū Bakr, ʿĀṣim, and Muḥammad.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah reported—through Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, from Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, from al-Layth—that it had reached him that ʿImrān (4) ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana used to relate that a man saw in a dream—either on the night ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was born, or, as Abū Bakr was unsure, on the night he assumed the caliphate—that a herald between heaven and earth was proclaiming: “Gentleness has come to you…”