to maintain ties with the people who loved his father after he has departed.’ He went on, ‘This man’s father was a friend of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him).’ All of these versions are recorded by Muslim.

[Commentary]
After the author (may Allah have mercy on him) discussed the rulings of filial piety and of keeping the bonds of kinship, he added the rulings concerning showing kindness to those who are connected to one’s parents and relatives, because of the relationship that exists either between them and one’s own relatives or between them and one’s parents. He then cited the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him), which contains an unusual incident: whenever Ibn ʿUmar set out for Mecca to perform Hajj he would take along a donkey on which he could relax whenever he grew weary of riding his main mount—the camel. He would rest on the donkey for a time and then return to the camel.

One day he encountered a Bedouin. Ibn ʿUmar asked him, ‘Are you so-and-so, the son of so-and-so?’ The man replied, ‘Yes.’ Ibn ʿUmar immediately dismounted from the donkey and said, ‘Take this—ride it,’ and he handed him the turban he had wrapped around his own head, saying, ‘Tie this around your head.’

People said to ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar, ‘May Allah set you right, or forgive you! They are Bedouins, and Bedouins are satisfied with far less than that.’ By this they meant: how could you climb down from your donkey and walk on foot, giving him the animal and the turban you use to bind your head, when he is a Bedouin who would have been content with something much smaller than that?