until al-Dahhāk ibn Sufyān (1)—who at that time was the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ governor over a group of Bedouin tribes—wrote to him, informing him that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ allotted the wife of Ashyam al-Dabābī a share of her husband’s blood-money.” Thereupon ʿUmar abandoned his own view and said, “Had we not heard this report, we would have ruled to the contrary.”

Nor did he know the ruling on taking jizyah from the Magians until ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (2) informed him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said, “Apply to them the precedent set for the People of the Book.”

Later, when he reached Sargh (3) and learned that plague had broken out in Syria, he consulted the earliest Emigrants who were with him, then the Helpers, and then those who had entered Islam at the Conquest. Each offered the opinion he thought best, yet no one cited a sunnah—until ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf arrived and related the Prophet’s ﷺ sunnah concerning plague, namely that he said, “If it breaks out in a land while you are there, do not leave it.”