Hadith 30

Persia) and Caesar (Rome). But, Allah-azwj took it out by their hands from the Clan of Hashim, and made it to come to the Clan of Taym Bin Murra (Abu Bakr’s tribe), then Exited it to the Clan of Udayy Bin Ka’ab (Umar’s tribe), and there was no tribe in the Quraysh which more abased, and more insignificant and more disgraceful than these two, nor any which was lower. They tempted us into it, and we were more deserving of it than these two and the descendants of these two, because with us there is wealth and splendour, and we are nearer to the Rasool-Allah-saww than these two. Then our companion Usman grabbed it by a consultative council, and the satisfaction of the general public after three days of consultation between the six of them, although it was grabbed by the one it beforehand (Umar) without the consultation. When our companion Usman was killed as an oppressed one, we grabbed it because when someone is killed as an oppressed one, Allah-azwj Makes his inheritor to be guardian. By my life, o my brother, If Umar has enacted that the blood-money compensation of a slave is to be half of that of the Arab, it was closer to piety. If I could have found a way to that, I would have begged the general public to accept it, but I am close to the era of war, so I fear the sectarianism of the people and their opposition to me. And it should suffice for you, the way of Umar regarding them, for it is a disgrace for them and humiliation. So, when this letter gets to you, humiliate the non-Arabs, and insult them, distance them, and do not ask for any help from them, and do not fulfil any of their needs. By Allah-azwj, you are a son of Abu Sufyan coming out from his loins, and what is more suitable as a lineage for Ubeyda apart from Adam-as and you have narrated to me – and you, O my brother you are truthful in my eyes – that you had read a letter from Umar to Abu Musa Al-Ash’ary in Al-Basra, and in those days you were his writer and he was the office bearer in Al-Basra, and you were the lowest of the people in his eyes, and in those days you used to consider yourself humiliated, counting yourself as a slave of the Saqeef (a tribe). And had you known in those days with conviction – as you are convinced now – that you are a son of Abu Sufyan, you would have considered yourself to be among nobles, you would have disdained to be a writer at the beck and call of the Ashariites. And you know, and we are convinced that Abu Sufyan followed the footsteps of Umayya Abd Shams. Ibn Abu Maeet has narrated to me that you had informed him that you had read a letter of Umar to Abu Musa Al-Ash’ary having sent to him a rope which was of five spans in length saying to him, ‘Present the people of Al-Basra in front of you. The ones from the slaves and those who have become Muslim from the non-Arabs who are of five spans in length, go to them and strike their necks’. Abu Musa consulted with you regarding that, and you prevented it and ordered that he should refer back to Umar. So he referred back and sent you to Umar with a letter, but you had only done what you did for being prejud