Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/106

 634] prayer. After a little, he bade them all farewell, and again departed for Medīna.

During the summer, Abu Bekr was busied with reinforcements for the Syrian campaign. Simple and temperate in habit, he was now, though over threescore years, hale and hearty. In the autumn, bathing incautiously on a cold day, fever laid him low and obliged him to make over the presidency at public prayer to ʿOmar. When the illness had lasted a fortnight, his friends became anxious, and said: "Shall we send for a physician?" "The Physician hath been to me already," was the solemn answer. "And what said he?" "He saith to me, I am about to do that with thee which I purpose to do." They understood his meaning, and were silent. Aware that the end was near, he made preparation for a successor. The choice was fixed on ʿOmar; but willing to fortify his own conviction by that of others, he first consulted ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān, one of the Prophet's foremost councillors, who praised ʿOmar as the fittest man, but withal inclined to be severe. "Which," responded the dying Caliph, "is because he saw me soft and tender-hearted. When himself Master, he will forego much of what thou sayest. I have watched him. If I were angry with one, he would intercede in his behalf; if over lenient, then he would be severe." ʿOthmān, too, confirmed the choice;—"What is hidden of ʿOmar," said he, "is better than that which doth appear; there is not his equal amongst us." Ṭalḥa, on the other hand, expostulated: "If we have suffered so much from ʿOmar, thou being yet with us, what will it be when thou art gone to thy Lord, there to answer for having left his people to the care of so hard a master?" "Set me up," cried the Caliph, much excited; "seekest thou to frighten me? I swear that when I meet my Lord, I will say unto Him, 'I have appointed as ruler over Thy people him that is the best amongst them.'"

Thereupon Abu Bekr called for ʿOthmān, and dictated an ordinance appointing ʿOmar his successor. He fainted while it was being written. Recovering, he bade ʿOthmān to read it over. Satisfied now, he praised the Lord; "for," said he, "I saw thee apprehensive lest, if I passed away, the people had been left in doubt." Upon this, he desired the ordinance to be read in the hearing of the Citizens, who had