Salim said, “Reduce the whole affair to a single day: fast during that day from the cravings of this world, and let death be the moment you break your fast—so it is as though it has already arrived.” ʿUmar replied, “la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (there is no power and no might except with Allah).” (1)

Another narrator tells that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz once addressed the people—and tears were choking him—saying, “People, set your Hereafter right and Allah will set your worldly life right; mend what is hidden within you and what is outward will be mended for you. By Allah, there is not a single servant whose only link between him and Adam is a chain of fathers but that every one of those fathers has died; indeed, he is fully engulfed by death.” (2)

He also said in one of his sermons: “How many a flourishing settlement, firmly established, (3) will before long be laid waste; and how many a resident who now rejoices will before long depart. So, may Allah have mercy on you, take from this world (4) the provisions for your journey with the finest supplies you possess. While the son of Adam is still in the world competing, his eyes calm and content, Allah summons him by His decree, strikes him with the day of his death, strips him of his traces and his worldly goods, and delivers his estates and wealth to another people. Truly, this world does not gladden in proportion to the harm it brings; it pleases a little and grieves for a long while.”

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh related from ʿAmr ibn Muhājir who said: When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz was invested with the caliphate, he stood and addressed the people. After praising and extolling Allah he said, “O people! There is no scripture after the Quran, and there is no prophet after Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him. I am not a law-giver, I am only an executor; I am not an innovator, I am but a follower. The man who flees from an unjust ruler is not himself unjust. Indeed, the unjust ruler is the sinner. Know that there is no obedience to any created being when it involves disobedience to the Creator—exalted is He—.” (5)

In another version he added, “I am not better than any one of you; rather, I carry the heaviest burden among you. Behold, there is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to Allah. Have I conveyed (the message)?”

Aḥmad ibn Marwān reported: Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥalawānī told us, Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd told us, Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān told us, Shuʿayb ibn Ṣafwān told us, and a son of Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ narrated: The last sermon ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz delivered began after he had praised and extolled Allah:

“To proceed: you were not created in vain, nor were you left without purpose. There is an appointed meeting at which Allah will descend to judge you and decide between you. Wretched and ruined is the one who departs from the mercy of Allah Most High and is barred from a Garden whose breadth is the heavens and the earth. Do you not know that no one feels secure about tomorrow except the one who fears and dreads the Last Day today, who sells the perishing for the everlasting (6), the little for the much, and fear for safety? Do you not see that you are wearing the possessions of those who have perished, and that after you others will wear yours…”