'And thus every envious person was delighted by it… and even his companions and close friends abandoned him.' It has been said that these couplets belong to someone else. Ibn Abi al-Dunya reports in his Kitab al-Ikhlas that ʿĀsim ibn ʿĀmir narrated to him, on the authority of his father, from ʿAbd Rabbihi ibn Abi Hilāl, from Maymūn ibn Mihrān, who said: “One day ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz addressed a gathering of his brothers, delivering eloquent speech and sound exhortation. He noticed one of his attendants whose eyes were overflowing with tears. When ʿUmar saw this, he immediately stopped speaking. I said to him, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, please continue your admonition; I hope God will grant its benefit to those who hear it or to whom it reaches.’ He replied, ‘Speak no more on my behalf, O Abū Ayyūb, for speaking about people is a trial (fitnah) from which no one addressing them emerges safe. Action is more appropriate for a believer than words.’” Ibn Abi al-Dunya also relates on ʿUmar’s authority: “We appointed certain men whom we considered righteous and noble, but when we put them in office they performed the deeds of the wicked—may God punish them! Weren’t they those who used to walk among the graves?” ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrates that he heard Maʿmar say: “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wrote to ʿAddī ibn Arṭāh—having received some unwelcome reports about him—: ‘As for what follows: you have impressed me by your gatherings with the reciters, your black turban and the way you dispatch it behind your back. You have done well in public, so we hold you in good esteem; and God has made us aware of many of your deeds.’” Al-Ṭabarānī and al-Daraqutnī (among others) transmit on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz a letter he sent to one of his governors: “Praise be to God. I enjoin you to fear God, to follow the sunnah of His Messenger, to govern with moderation, and to abandon whatever the innovators (muhdithūn) introduced after him—those who have fought against his sunnah and whose provision has been withheld from them. Know that no innovation (bidʿah) has ever appeared without preceding it some evidence of its falsehood—so adhere firmly to the sunnah. It was established by those who knew full well the deviation, error, folly and misconception entailed by departing from it. They were best able to uncover matters and most rigorous in practice—their implementation was uncompromising. Had there been any excellence in what you imagine yourselves capable of, they would have been more deserving of it and more inclined toward it, for they were first to every good. If you say, ‘After them came some good,’ know that it was introduced only by one who followed a path other than that of the believers, deviated from their way and whose soul turned away from them. They spoke enough about it to warn us and described its true nature so as to cure us. There is no middle ground: what falls short of their standard is deficient, and what goes beyond them is unworthy. Indeed, some among them fell short in their practice and were undermined, and others went beyond them and fell into excess. May God have mercy on Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz! How excellent is this counsel, which could only spring from a heart filled with commitment to the sunnah and love for what the Companions followed! Who among later jurists or others can say the like? May God have mercy on him and forgive him.” Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī reports, via Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-Ḥāfiẓ from Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam from Rashīd ibn Saʿīd, that ʿUqayl narrated from Shihāb from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who said: “Messenger of God (peace be upon him) and his successors counted among their sunnas—adherence to which confirms the Book of God and practices obedience to Him—anyone may neither alter nor replace them, nor pay heed to the opinion of one who opposes them. Whoever follows what came before is rightly guided, and whoever gains insight through them sees clearly. Whoever opposes them and follows other than the way of the believers, God entrusts him with nothing of true guidance, consigns him to Hell, and how terrible is that destination.” On another occasion ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ordered his muezzin to call: “The congregation (ṣalāt jamāʿah)!” When the people assembled he delivered a sermon in which he said: “I have gathered you only to remind you that one who believes in the meeting to come with God and the Hereafter but does not act or prepare for it is a fool, and one who denies it is an unbeliever.” He then recited the verses: “Unquestionably, they are [in] doubt about the meeting with their Lord” (Fussilat 41:54) and “And most of them do not believe in God except that they associate others with Him” (Yūsuf 12:106). Ibn Abi al-Dunya also reports that he sent his sons, together with a tutor, to Ṭā’if for their education. ʿUmar wrote to him: “How poorly you have taught, in that you presented the Commander of the Muslims as a boy who did not know the intention—or in whom the intention did not enter. Mention this in your treatise on intention.”