2541 – ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zādhān al-Qazwīnī related to us; he said: Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Kaysānī al-Qazwīnī related to us; he said: ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb related to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us; he said: Ḥuṣayn narrated from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said:

“I arrived to find ʿUmar standing over Hudhayfah and ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf, saying, ‘Are you afraid that you have imposed upon the land what it cannot bear?’
Hudhayfah replied, ‘If I wished, I could make the land yield twice as much.’
ʿUthmān said, ‘I have only tasked my land with what it can manage, and there is no great surplus in it.’
ʿUmar repeated, ‘See to it that you have not laden the land with more than it can bear.’

Then he added, ‘If Allah grants me respite, I will leave the widows of this realm so well-provided for that they will never again need anyone after me.’

No more than four nights passed before he was struck down.
Whenever he entered the mosque he would stand between the rows and say, ‘Line up.’ Once the lines were straight he would step forward and pronounce the opening takbīr. The moment he said it he was stabbed where he stood. I heard him saying, ‘The cur has killed me—or was it: the cur has devoured me?—I do not know which of the two he said.’

Nothing separated him from me but Ibn ʿAbbās. He took the hand of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf and brought him forward. The attacker—a non-Arab slave—held a double-edged dagger and passed to every man on his right and left, stabbing them, until he had struck thirteen men, nine of whom died.
When a Muslim saw this, he threw a cloak over the man to capture him; thinking he was being seized, the assailant slit his own throat.
They offered the dawn prayer quickly. The people in the outer parts of the mosque did not know what had happened; they only noticed the absence of ʿUmar’s voice and kept saying, ‘Subḥān Allāh.’ ⦗1413⦘

When the prayer ended, ʿUmar asked Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘Who has killed me?’ He went about for a while and then returned, saying, ‘The craftsman—the young servant of al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah; he was a carpenter.’
ʿUmar said, ‘Praise be to Allah who did not decree my death at the hands of a man who claims to be Muslim. May Allah destroy him; I had treated him kindly.’
Then he said to Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘You and your father were fond of having many such foreigners in Medina.’ Ibn ʿAbbās replied, ‘If you wish, we will kill them.’ He said, ‘After they have spoken your language, prayed your prayer, and performed your pilgrimage?’

The people said to him, ‘You will recover.’ He called for nabīdh and drank; it flowed from his wound red. He then called for milk and drank; it too flowed out, and he knew death had come. He said, ‘O ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, see how much debt I owe and reckon it.’
He reckoned it and found it to be eighty-six thousand. ʿUmar said, ‘If the property of the family of ʿUmar meets it, pay it off; otherwise ask the Banū ʿAdiyy ibn Kaʿb. If their wealth is insufficient, then ask Quraysh, and do not go beyond them. Pay it on my behalf.
Then go to ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, convey my greetings, and say, “ʿUmar seeks permission”—do not say “the Commander of the Believers,” for today I am no longer the Commander of the Believers—“to be buried with his two companions.”’

Ibn ʿUmar went to her and found her seated, weeping. He greeted her and said, ‘ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb seeks permission to be buried with his two companions.’ She replied, ‘I had reserved it for myself, but I will prefer him to myself.’
When he returned they said, ‘ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar has come.’ ʿUmar said, ‘Lift me up,’ and a man supported him. ‘What news do you have?’ he asked. ‘Permission has been granted,’ he replied.
ʿUmar said, ‘Nothing mattered more to me than that resting-place. When I die, carry me there and seek permission. If she grants it, bury me; if she refuses, then return me to the graveyard of the Muslims.’

When he passed away he was carried out, and it was as though the people had never known a calamity until that day. ʿAbd Allāh offered greetings and said, ‘ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb seeks permission.’ She granted it, and Allah thus honoured him to be buried beside His Messenger and Abū Bakr. ⦗1414⦘

When death had drawn near, they asked him about the succession. He said, ‘No one has more right to this matter than these men with whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away while pleased with them; whichever of them is chosen is the caliph after me.’
He named ʿAlī, ʿUthmān, Ṭalḥah, al-Zubayr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, adding, ‘If Saʿd is affected and one of the others is chosen, let him seek Saʿd’s counsel, for I did not remove him out of weakness or treachery.’
He instructed that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar be consulted though he was to have no share in the decision.

When they convened, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said, ‘Entrust your affair to three of your number.’ Al-Zubayr delegated his voice to ʿAlī, Ṭalḥah to ʿUthmān, and Saʿd to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. The three then consulted. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said to the other two, ‘Which of you will withdraw and leave the decision to me, on condition that I spare no effort to choose the best Muslim and the one best for you?’ ʿAlī and ʿUthmān remained silent.
He said, ‘Do you place it in my hands? I will withdraw, and by Allah I shall not fall short of selecting the best among you, the one most beneficial for the Muslims.’ They said, ‘Yes.’
He secluded himself with ʿAlī and said, ‘You have kinship with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and precedence in Islam. I adjure you by Allah: if I choose you, will you act justly, and if ʿUthmān is chosen will you listen and obey?’ He then secluded himself with ʿUthmān and said the same.
After that he said, ‘Extend your hand, O ʿUthmān,’ and he pledged allegiance to him; then ʿAlī pledged, followed by the people.

ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, had said: ‘I counsel the caliph after me to fear Allah, and (to honour) the first Emigrants—let him recognise their rights and safeguard their sanctity. I counsel him to treat the Helpers well—“those who made the city their home and embraced the faith before them” (Q 59:9)—to accept the good from the virtuous among them and overlook the faults of those who fall short.
I also counsel him concerning the Helpers, for they are the shield of Islam, the anger of the enemy, and the collectors of the revenue; nothing should be taken from them except what is surplus, with their consent.
I counsel him regarding the Bedouin, for they ⦗1415⦘ are the root of the Arabs and the reservoir of Islam: let him take from the margins of their wealth and return it to their poor.
I counsel him regarding those under the protection of Allah and the protection of His Messenger: that their covenant be fulfilled, that they be defended from behind, and that they not be burdened beyond their capacity.’

Al-Bukhārī recorded this tradition in full in his Ṣaḥīḥ.