to the decree of Allah. Consider this, O Abū ʿUbaydah: if you owned camels and came down into a valley with two sides, one of them lush and the other barren, would you not be grazing by the decree of Allah if you chose the lush side, and by the decree of Allah if you chose the barren side?”

At that point ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf d. 32 AH, who had been away attending to some business, arrived and said, “I possess knowledge about this matter. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘If you hear that it (the plague) has broken out in a land, do not go into it; and if it occurs in a land while you are there, do not leave it, fleeing from it.’” ʿUmar then praised Allah and departed. Agreed upon. (The word ʿadwah refers to the side of a valley.)

1792 – Usāmah ibn Zayd related that the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you hear of the plague in a land, do not enter it; and if it strikes a land while you are in it, do not leave it.” Agreed upon.

[Commentary]
This is a significant chapter that the author—may Allah have mercy on him—placed in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn. It concerns the reprehensibility of a person’s going to a land where calamity has descended, and of his leaving that land after the calamity has appeared in order to flee from it. In other words, if you hear that an epidemic has struck a land, do not travel there; and if it falls upon a land while you are in it, do not leave, trying to escape from it.