1190 — ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā informed us; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed us; he said: Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Zubayrī narrated to us; he said: Mālik ibn Anas narrated to us.

1191 — And Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaʿqūb informed us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn informed us; he said: ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslamah ibn Qaʿnab narrated to us; he said: I read to Mālik ibn Anas. Through another chain: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad informed us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us; he said: my grandfather, Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah, narrated to us; he said: Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslamah al-Qaʿnabī narrated to us, from Mālik, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās:

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him, set out for Syria. When he reached Sargh, the commanders of the military divisions—Abū ʿUbaydah ⦗727⦘ and his companions—met him and informed him that the plague had broken out in Syria.

Ibn ʿAbbās said: ʿUmar then said, “Call the earliest Emigrants for me.” So he summoned them, and ʿUmar consulted them, informing them that the plague had broken out in Syria. They differed over the matter. Some said, “You set out for a purpose, and we do not think that you should turn back from it.” Others said, “You are accompanied by the rest of the people and by the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and we do not think that you should expose them to this plague.”

ʿUmar said, “Leave me.” Then he said, “Call the Anṣār for me.” They summoned them for him, and he consulted them. They followed the course of the Emigrants and differed just as they had differed. He said, “Leave me.” Then he said, “Call for me the elders of Quraysh who had emigrated at the time of the Conquest.” They summoned them, and he consulted them. Not two men among them disagreed; they said, “We think that you should return with the people and not expose them to this plague.”

So ʿUmar announced to the people, “I will set out at dawn, so be ready to depart.” Abū ʿUbaydah said, “O Commander of the Believers, are you fleeing from Allah’s decree?” He replied, “Had anyone other than you said this, O Abū ʿUbaydah! Yes, we flee from Allah’s decree to Allah’s decree. Consider this: if you had camels and descended with them into a valley having two sides, one fertile and the other barren, would it not be that if you grazed them on the fertile side, you would do so ⦗728⦘ by Allah’s decree, and if you grazed them on the barren side, you would do so by Allah’s decree?”

He said: Then ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf arrived; he had been absent attending to some need of his. He said, “I have knowledge concerning this. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘If you hear that it has broken out in a land, do not enter it; and if it breaks out in a land while you are there, do not leave it in flight from it.’”

He said: ʿUmar praised Allah and then departed. It was recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.