An explanation for everything

A delegation from Homs came to Umar with a list of complaints against the man he had put in charge of them, Sa'id ibn Aamir.

Among the complaints reported: that he did not come out to see them until well into the morning; that he could not be reached by anyone at night; that there was a day each month he was unavailable to anyone at all; and that he was sometimes seen to lose consciousness among them without warning.

Umar sent for him and put each complaint to him directly.

His explanations, as the accounts describe them, were unremarkable rather than dramatic. He had no servant of his own, so the mornings were spent preparing what his household needed before he could come out. The nights he had set aside for worship. The day each month came because he owned only the one garment he was wearing, and had to wash it and wait for it to dry before he could be seen in public. And the loss of consciousness, when it came, was brought on by the memory of having watched Khubayb ibn al-Adi executed in Makkah before he was himself a Muslim — a memory that still overcame him without warning.

Umar is reported to have been moved by what he heard, and the complaints were not pursued any further.