counted him among the Twelve Caliphs about whom the sound hadith says:

"The affairs of this ummah will remain upright until there have been twelve caliphs, all of them from Quraysh." (1)

During the brief span of his rule, may Allah have mercy on him, he strove with utmost diligence: he restored misappropriated property and allotted every rightful claimant his due. Each day his herald would call out, "Where are those burdened with debt? Where are those who wish to marry? Where are the needy? Where are the orphans?" until every one of these groups had been provided for. (2)

The scholars have differed as to which of the two men is superior—he or Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān. Some preferred ʿUmar because of his policy, justice, asceticism, and devotion. Others preferred Muʿāwiyah for his early precedence and his Companionship, so much so that some of them said, "A single day that Muʿāwiyah witnessed with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, is better than ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, all his days, and the members of his household."

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir relates in his History (3) that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had once been fond of a maidservant who belonged to his wife Fāṭimah bint ʿAbd al-Malik. He had asked his wife either to sell the girl to him or to give her to him, but she refused. When he became caliph, she dressed the girl, perfumed her, sent her to him, and presented her as a gift. Once they were alone, however, he turned away from her. The girl tried to entice him, but he avoided her. She said, "My master, what has become of the love you used to show me?" He replied, "By Allah, my love for you is just as it was, but I have no need of you now; a matter has come to me that has preoccupied me from you and from everyone else." He then asked about her origin and how she had been brought to them. She said, "Commander of the Believers, my father committed an offense in the lands of the Maghrib (4). Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr confiscated his property and I was taken on account of that offense. I was sent to al-Walīd, who gave me to his sister Fāṭimah, your wife, and she in turn presented me to you." ʿUmar said, "We belong to Allah and to Him we return! By Allah, we nearly exposed ourselves and perished." He then ordered that she be returned, honoured, to her homeland and her family.

His wife Fāṭimah said: I entered upon him one day while he was sitting in his prayer-place, resting his cheek upon his hand, tears flowing down his face. I asked, "What is the matter with you?" He said, "Woe to you, Fāṭimah! I have been made responsible for the affairs of this ummah, and I reflected upon the hungry poor, the ailing who are forsaken, the unclothed destitute, the wronged who are overpowered, the stranger held captive, the elderly man, the one with a large family and scant means, and others like them throughout the regions and the farthest corners—" (5)