and led it through the ford. Abu ʿUbaydah said, “Commander of the Believers, are you really doing this—taking off your leather socks, slinging them over your shoulder, holding your camel’s rein, and wading through the ford? I would not like the people of the town to see you so!” ʿUmar replied, “Ah, Abu ʿUbaydah! Had anyone other than you said that, I would have made him an example for the community of Muhammad ﷺ. We were the most humiliated of peoples, and Allah honored us with Islam; whenever we seek honor through anything other than what Allah honored us with, He will abase us.”

al-Ḥākim said, “Sound according to the criteria of the Two Shaykhs,” and al-Dhahabī concurred; it is exactly as they stated. In another version he relates: “Commander of the Believers, the troops and the Byzantine nobles of Syria will meet you while you are in this state!” ʿUmar answered, “We are a people whom Allah honored by Islam, and we will never seek honor through anything else.”

(Ẓilal: anything that provides shade; the singular is ẓillah. He meant that the tribulations are like mountains or clouds.)

52 – “Allah accepts no deed except what is done purely for Him and by which His Face is sought.”

Its occasion, as Abu Umāmah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated, is that “A man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, what of someone who goes out to fight seeking both reward and recognition—what does he receive?’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘He receives nothing.’ He asked three times, and each time the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘He receives nothing.’ Then he added…”—and he mentioned the rest.

Narrated by al-Nasāʾī in the Book of Jihād (2/59); its chain is good, as al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī stated in his Takhrīj al-Iḥyāʾ (4/328). Numerous hadiths conveying the same meaning appear at the beginning of al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Munḏirī’s Kitāb al-Targhīb.