Umar's Governance and Judgments

A collection of reports about the policy and judgements of Umar ibn al-Khattab, as al-Suyuti gives them in "History of the Caliphs". ¹

When he appointed a governor he recorded his property, and he shared with transgressing governors their wealth, taking half and giving them half. ¹

He spent a long time without taking anything from the public money until he was in need, and he consulted the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Ali said: "A lunch and a supper," and he took that. ¹

He wrote that no commander of an army or a detachment should flog anyone with the prescribed punishment until he was on the road. He said that affairs are set right only by firmness without tyranny, and gentleness without weakness. ¹

A woman came to him complaining that her husband prayed at night and fasted by day. Umar praised him, and Kab ibn Suwar understood that she was complaining that he did not come near her bed. Umar ordered him to judge between them, and he made it for her a day and a night out of every four. ¹

On his pilgrimage he spent sixteen dinars, and he said: "O servant of God, we have been extravagant with this money." ¹

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