wherever Allah directed him, and afterwards it was held by Abū Bakr and ʿUmar in the same manner—al-Aṣmaʿī said, “I do not know what he mentioned about ʿUthmān”—then Marwān parceled it out and a share of it came to me, while al-Walīd and Sulaymān donated to me their shares as well. None of my own wealth was mixed with it, yet I have returned it in full to the Public Treasury, putting it back exactly as it had been in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. He went on: “At that point people despaired of retaining any property acquired through injustice.”

He next ordered that the wealth of a number of the Banū Umayyah be seized and restored to the Public Treasury, calling it “the wealth of injustices.” They sought intercession through various people and even appealed to him by means of his aunt, Fāṭimah bint Marwān, but nothing availed them; nothing could turn him away from the truth. He said to them, “Leave me be, or I shall go to Mecca and surrender this office to the one most entitled to it.” He also declared, “By Allah, even if I remained among you for fifty years, I would establish nothing but the justice I seek. Here I am: I wish to carry out a matter, yet I only execute it after attaching to it some worldly incentive so that hearts may be put at ease.” (1)

Imām Aḥmad reported, through ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from his father, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that he said, “If there is a Mahdī in this ummah, it is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.” Something similar was said by Qatādah, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, and others. (2)

Ṭāwūs said, “He is a Mahdī, though not the awaited Mahdī, for he did not realize justice in its entirety. When the Mahdī appears, the evildoer will repent of his wrongdoing, the benefactor will have his beneficence increased, he will be generous with wealth, stern with governors, and merciful to the poor.” (3)

Mālik narrated from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥarmalah, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, that he said, “The caliphs are Abū Bakr and the two ʿUmars.” He was asked, “We know Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, but who is the other ʿUmar?” He replied, “If you live long enough you will come to know him”—meaning ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. (4) In another report he said, “He is the scarred one of the Banū Marwān.”

ʿAbbād al-Sammāk, who used to sit with Sufyān al-Thawrī, said, “I heard al-Thawrī say, ‘The caliphs are five: Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.’” (5) The same has been related from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, al-Shāfiʿī, and others. (5)

All the scholars, unanimously and without exception, agree that he was one of the imams of justice, one of the rightly guided caliphs, and among the rightly guided imams. Others have also