A man from the west came to Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful! You must give me a ride. So Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) looked at him and said: By Allah! If you had mentioned your need without making me swear, it would have been better. And now, I swear by Allah that I will not give you a ride. The narrator says: I think he replied to him in this way thirty times or nearly thirty times.
Then an Ansari man whose name was Atiq bin Bilal said to him: What do you want? Have you not seen how many oaths the Commander of the Faithful has taken that he will not give you a ride? By Allah! You only want to cause trouble.
The man said: By Allah! This wealth belongs to Allah, by Allah! I am also one of Allah’s servants, by Allah! You are the Commander of the Faithful, my ride has left me stranded, by Allah! I am a traveler, I have been cut off on the way, by Allah! You must give me a ride.
Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: What did you say? He repeated the same thing, so he said: By Allah! This wealth is indeed Allah’s, and you are indeed Allah’s servant, and I am the Commander of the Faithful, and if your ride has left you stranded, I cannot leave you to perish, by Allah! I will give you a ride.
Then that man kept repeating his statement until Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) also swore an oath or swore twice, then said: From now on, I will not persist in any oath for which there is a better alternative, rather I will choose the better alternative.
Hadith Referenceسنن سعید بن منصور / كتاب التفسير / 807
Hadith Gradingمحدثین:سنده ضعيف للانقطاع بين أبي ليلى وعمر