Narrated It was narrated that Humrah bin 'Abd Kulal said:
Umar bin al-Khattab travelled to Syria for the second time and when he approached it, he and those who were with him heard that the plague was widespread therein. His companions said to him: Go back and do not enter it, for if you enter it when (the plague) is in it, we do not think that you should leave it. So he set off, heading back to Madinah, and he stopped to rest at the end of that night. I was the closest of the people to him, and when he woke up, I woke up with him and followed him, and I heard him say: They turned me away from Syria after I had got close to it because the plague was there. It would be a good idea to go to Madinah and finish some work that I have to do there, then I will go and enter Syria and stay in Homs, for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will resurrect from it seventy thousand without any reckoning or punishment, and their place of resurrection will be between the olive trees and the garden at al-Barth al Ahmar near (Homs).`
Narrated Ubaidullah bin ‘Abdullah bin 'Utbah bin Mas'ood told us that Abu Hurairah said:
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died and Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه became (caliph) after him, and some of the Arabs apostatized,ʻUmar رضي الله عنه said: O Abu Bakr, how can you fight the people when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: `I have been ordered to fight the people until they bear witness that there is no god except Allah. Whoever bears witness that there is no god except Allah has protected his wealth and his life from me, except in cases dictated by Islamic law, and their reckoning will be with Allah`? Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه said: by Allah I shall certainly fight the one who separates prayer and zakah, for zakah is what is due from wealth. By Allah, whoever withholds from me a goat that they used to give (in zakah) to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I shall fight them for withholding it. 'Umar said: By Allah, as soon as I realized that Allah had opened the heart of Abu Bakr to fighting, I realized that it was the right thing to do.