As-salaamu'alaykum,
Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Najeeh said that he once stayed as a guest under Umar’s care and during his stay he came to know that Umar owned a camel whose milk he would drink. Then, one day, Umar’s servant gave Umar milk whose taste was somehow different from the milk he had become accustomed to drinking. Umar said to his servant,
“Woe upon you! From where did you get this milk?”
The servant explained that the baby of Umar’s camel got to its mother’s milk and drank it all; and so he was forced to take milk from another camel, a camel that belonged to the Muslim treasury. Upon hearing his servant’s explanation, Umar exclaimed,
“Woe upon you, do you want to give me fire to drink?”
Umar then asked a number of eminent Companions about the matter and they told him that it was lawful for him to drink the milk of a camel that belonged to the Muslim treasury and that it was even lawful for him to eat from that camel’s meat.
(Tareekh Madeenah al-Munawwarah, pg. 702)
They said this because Umar, as the Khaleefah of the Muslim Nation had a right to a salary – either actual money or sufficient food and drink for his upkeep. Umar knew that he had a right to a salary, but, due to his Wara (refraining from certain lawful things out of fear that will lead to something forbidden), he would forget that fact being conscious only of his overriding fear of Allah’s punishment. Umar was afraid of being held accountable for drinking the milk even though he was not aware of its source and even though upon learning of its source, he was not satisfied with what he had inadvertently done until some eminent Companions informed him that the strange milk was lawful for him.
This story points not just to Umar’s Wara, but also to the fact that Umar’s mind was much more occupied with the world that was to come than with the world in which he lived. Thoughts about the Hereafter guided his every thought and his every action.
(At-Tareekh al-Islami, 19/28)
Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Najeeh said that he once stayed as a guest under Umar’s care and during his stay he came to know that Umar owned a camel whose milk he would drink. Then, one day, Umar’s servant gave Umar milk whose taste was somehow different from the milk he had become accustomed to drinking. Umar said to his servant,
“Woe upon you! From where did you get this milk?”
The servant explained that the baby of Umar’s camel got to its mother’s milk and drank it all; and so he was forced to take milk from another camel, a camel that belonged to the Muslim treasury. Upon hearing his servant’s explanation, Umar exclaimed,
“Woe upon you, do you want to give me fire to drink?”
Umar then asked a number of eminent Companions about the matter and they told him that it was lawful for him to drink the milk of a camel that belonged to the Muslim treasury and that it was even lawful for him to eat from that camel’s meat.
(Tareekh Madeenah al-Munawwarah, pg. 702)
They said this because Umar, as the Khaleefah of the Muslim Nation had a right to a salary – either actual money or sufficient food and drink for his upkeep. Umar knew that he had a right to a salary, but, due to his Wara (refraining from certain lawful things out of fear that will lead to something forbidden), he would forget that fact being conscious only of his overriding fear of Allah’s punishment. Umar was afraid of being held accountable for drinking the milk even though he was not aware of its source and even though upon learning of its source, he was not satisfied with what he had inadvertently done until some eminent Companions informed him that the strange milk was lawful for him.
This story points not just to Umar’s Wara, but also to the fact that Umar’s mind was much more occupied with the world that was to come than with the world in which he lived. Thoughts about the Hereafter guided his every thought and his every action.
(At-Tareekh al-Islami, 19/28)