رياض الصالحينAbū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī٣٦١ - باب كراهة الخروج من بلد وقع فيها الوباء فرارا منه وكراهة القدوم عليه
Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction. But if good comes to them, they say, "This is from Allāh"; and if evil befalls them, they say,1 "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from Allāh." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?
And spend in the way of Allāh and do not throw [yourselves] with your [own] hands into destruction [by refraining]. And do good; indeed, Allāh loves the doers of good.
Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) set out for al-Shām, and when he reached Sargh the commanders of the army districts — Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ and his companions — met him and informed him that the plague had broken out in al-Shām. Ibn ʿAbbās said: ʿUmar said to me: Summon for me the earliest Muhājirūn. So I summoned them, and he consulted them and told them that the plague had broken out in al-Shām. They differed: some said, You set out for a purpose, and we do not think you should turn back from it; while others said, With you are the rest of the people and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and we do not think you should expose them to this plague. He said: Withdraw from me. Then he said: Summon for me the Anṣār. So I summoned them, and he consulted them, and they took the same course as the Muhājirūn and differed as they had differed. He said: Withdraw from me. Then he said: Summon for me those of the elders of Quraysh present here, from the emigrants of the Conquest. So I summoned them, and not two of them differed with him; they said: We think you should turn back with the people and not expose them to this plague. So ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) called out among the people: I shall set out in the morning on my mount, so be ready. Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Is it flight from the decree of Allah? ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) replied: Would that someone other than you had said it, O Abū ʿUbaydah! — for ʿUmar disliked to differ with him — Yes, we flee from the decree of Allah to the decree of Allah. Do you not see that if you had camels and they went down into a valley with two banks, one fertile and the other barren, then whether you grazed them on the fertile one you would graze them by the decree of Allah, or grazed them on the barren one you would graze them by the decree of Allah? Then ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (may Allah be pleased with him), who had been absent on some errand of his, came and said: I have some knowledge about this; I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "When you hear of it in a land, do not proceed to it; and when it breaks out in a land while you are in it, do not leave fleeing from it." So ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) praised Allah the Exalted and departed. Agreed upon. And "al-ʿudwah" means the side of the valley.
Usāmah ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: "When you hear of the plague in a land, do not enter it; and when it breaks out in a land while you are in it, do not leave it." Agreed upon.