One day his small son went out to play with the neighborhood boys, and one of them struck him and split his head open. The people seized the boy who had injured ʿUmar’s child and brought him to ʿUmar. Hearing the commotion, he came out; there stood a woman saying, “He is my son, and he is an orphan.” ʿUmar told her, “Calm yourself.” Then he asked, “Does he receive an allowance from the dīwān (state register)?” She replied, “No!” He said, “Then enter him among the dependents.” His wife Fatima protested, “Are you going to do this for him when he has just gashed your son? May Allah do such-and-such to him; next time he will wound your son again!” He answered, “Woe to you! He is an orphan, and you have frightened him.” (1)

Mālik ibn Dīnār said, “People say that Mālik is an ascetic—what asceticism do I possess? (2) The real ascetic is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: the world came to him with its jaws wide open, and he abandoned it altogether.” (3)

They relate that he owned only a single shirt; when it was washed he would stay indoors until it dried. On one occasion he stopped beside a monk and said, “Give me admonition.” The monk replied, “Take heed of the poet’s words:
Divest yourself of the world, for you indeed …
Came to the world naked, and naked you will depart.”
ʿUmar liked these lines, repeated them often, and put them into practice as they deserved. (3)

They also report that he once entered upon his wife and asked her to lend him a dirham—or a few small coins—so that he might buy some grapes, but she had nothing. She said, “You are the Commander of the Believers and there is nothing in your treasury with which to buy grapes?” He replied, “That is easier than grappling tomorrow with chains and fetters in the Fire of Jahannam.” (4)

They say that the lamp in his house was merely three reeds with clay at their tips. (5)

They further relate that one day he sent his servant to grill some meat for him. The boy soon returned with the meat already roasted. ʿUmar asked, “Where did you roast it?” He answered, “In the kitchen.” ʿUmar said, “The public kitchen of the Muslims?” He replied, “Yes.” ʿUmar said, “Then eat it yourself, for I have no lawful share in it; it is your provision.” (6)

On another occasion they heated water for him in the public kitchen, so he compensated the treasury with a dirham’s worth of firewood. (5)

His wife said, “While he was caliph he neither approached me as a husband nor experienced a nocturnal emission.” (6)

They report that news reached ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that Abū Salām al-Aswad was narrating the hadith of the ḥawḍ (the Prophet’s Basin). He therefore dispatched for him and had him brought by express courier. When he arrived, ʿUmar—speaking as though in pain—said, “O Abū Salām, we did not wish to burden you, but I wanted you to relate it to me directly… ”