Umar ibn al-Khattab Writes to Amr ibn al-As

★ Umar ibn al-Khattab wrote to Amr ibn al-As, who was his governor over Egypt:

"Peace be upon you. Now then: it has reached me that you have come into abundant property — horses and camels and sheep and cattle and slaves — and my knowledge of you before this was that you had no wealth. So write to me whence this wealth originated, and do not conceal it!"

Amr wrote back to him, saying: "Now then: I inform the Commander of the Faithful that I am in a land where prices are cheap, and that I ply the trades and the farming that its people ply, and there is no abundance in the stipend of the Commander of the Faithful. By God, even had I thought betraying you lawful, I would not have betrayed you. So desist, O man, for we have noble lineage that is better than working for you; if we return to it, we shall live by it."

So Umar wrote to him: "Now then: by God, I am not one for these fables of yours that you set down in writing, and it will avail you nothing to commend yourself. I have sent Muhammad ibn Maslama to you to call you to account."

When Muhammad ibn Maslama came to Amr, Amr prepared a great deal of food for him, but Muhammad refused to eat any of it. Amr said to him, "Do you hold our food forbidden?" He answered: "Had you set before me the food of a guest, I would have eaten it. By God, I shall not drink water in your house until you write out for me everything that is yours, concealing nothing of it, for over you here I am a reckoner and a watcher."

★ A lady wrote in to say:

In the mountain region of eastern Pennsylvania my husband saw a small farm which every sign showed to be a prosperous one. He went in to ask whether it was offered for sale, explaining to its aged owner that his concern was not with farming it and working it, but with making it a refuge for himself in vacation days and a place for hunting.

The old farmer said: "It is true that I intend to sell it next spring. My wife and I have labored forty years to make it a farm fit for a family to live on and to draw from it an honorable livelihood. That, in my view, is the best thing I can do for the future of my country: and I will not consent to sell it to you." My husband said, "And why do you refuse?" The old man said: "It may be hard for you to grasp my excuse. But if I sold it to you when you do not intend to farm it and work it — however much the money you paid — I would be like a man who sells a flock of fine young livestock to be delivered to the butcher."