Abdul-Hameed bin Abdul-Rahman bin Zayd bin Khattab reported from Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Harith bin Nawfal, from Abdullah bin Abbas, that Umar bin Khattab set out for Syria. When he reached Sargh, the commanders of the military districts met him, Abu Ubayda bin Jarra and his companions, and they informed him that plague had broken out in Syria.Ibn Abbas said, Umar told me, "Call the earliest Emigrants to me." So I called them, and he consulted them and told them that plague had broken out in Syria. They disagreed among themselves.Some of them said, "You have set out for a purpose, and we do not think you should turn back from it."Others said, "You have with you the remainder of the people and the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and we do not think you should lead them into this plague."Umar said, "Withdraw from me." Then he said, "Call the Helpers to me."So I called them, and he consulted them. They took the same course as the Emigrants and disagreed just as they had.Umar said, "Withdraw from me." Then he said, "Call me whoever is here of the elders of Quraysh, those who emigrated before the conquest."I called them, and not two men among them differed. They said, "We think you should take the people back and not lead them into this plague."So Umar announced to the people, "I shall be riding out in the morning, so be ready."Abu Ubayda bin Jarra said, "Is this flight from the decree of Allah?"Umar replied, "Had anyone else said that, Abu Ubayda!" Umar disliked opposing him. "Yes, we flee from the decree of Allah to the decree of Allah. Tell me, if you had camels and you came down into a valley with two slopes, one fertile and the other barren, would you not be grazing them by the decree of Allah if you grazed the fertile side, and grazing them by the decree of Allah if you grazed the barren side?"Then Abdul-Rahman bin Awf came, having been absent attending to some need of his, and he said, "I have knowledge about this. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, 'When you hear of it in a land, do not go into it, and when it breaks out in a land where you already are, do not leave in flight from it.'"So Umar bin Khattab praised Allah and then departed.In another version he said that Abdullah bin Harith narrated it to him, and he did not say Abdullah bin Abdullah.
و حدثنيه أبو الطاهر وحرملة بن يحيى قالا أخبرنا ابن وهب أخبرني يونس عن ابن شهاب بهذا الإسناد غير أنه قال إن عبد الله بن الحارث حدثه ولم يقل عبد الله بن عبد الله