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Text and translation
English translation
2289. Sālim bin ‘Abdullāh narrated from ‘Abdullāh bin ‘Umar about the dream of the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, so he said: “I saw that the people had gathered, so Abū Bakr drew a bucket or two buckets – in him was some weakness – and Allāh forgive him. Then ‘Umar stood to draw and the bucket turned into a very large one, and I have never seen a strong man toiling so hard until it was as if the people had gathered at a (camel) watering hole.” (Sahih)
[He said:] There is something on this topic from Abū Hurairah.
This Hadīth is Ṣaḥīḥ Gharīb as a narration of Ibn ‘Umar.
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Commentary
‘Umar ﷺ had the good fortune of getting a comparatively long, peaceful climate of work as Caliph which he made use of to speed up military successes for Islam. It is this aspect of his tenure that he has been described in the Hadīth as drawing a massive bucket of water. Abū Bakr ﷺ in his tenure had to contend with several situations of crisis and turbulence. Hence the use of the epithet ‘weak’ for the description of his tenure. There is, however, no denying the fact that bringing peace and stability out of the conditions of conflict and chaos is to be reckoned as Abū Bakr’s great achievement rather than weakness or defect. This explains why the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ supplicated to Allāh for bestowing His forgiveness and mercy upon Abū Bakr ﷺ. The tenure of ‘Umar ﷺ has, however, been described as ‘peaceful’ since it witnessed the flowering of the Islamic faith and its expansion at a very vast scale.
