'Abdullah bin 'Abbas reported: Umar bin Khattab set out for Syria. As he came at Sargh (a town by the side of Hijaz on the way to Syria), there met him the commander of the forces, Abu Ubaida bin Jandb, and his companions. They informed him that a scourge had broken out in Syria. Ibn 'Abbas further reported that 'Umar said: Call to me the earliest emigrants. So I called them. He (Hadrat 'Umar) sought their advice, and they told him that the scourge had broken out in Syria. There was a difference of opinion (whether they should proceed further or go back to their homes in such a situation). Some of them said: You ('Umar) have set forth for a task, and, therefore, we would not advise you to go back, whereas some of them said: You have along with you the remnants (of the sacred galaxy) of men and (the blessed) Companions of Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) , so we would not advise you to go forth towards this calamity (with such eminent persons and thus expose them deliberately to a danger). He (Hadrat 'Umar) said: You can now go away. He said: Call to me the Ansar. So I called them to him, and he consulted them, and they trod the same path as was trodden by the Muhajirin, and they differed in their opinions as they had differed. He said: Now, you can go. He again said: Call to me the old persons of the Quraish who had migrated before the Victory (that is the Victory of Makkah), so I called them (and Hadrat 'Umar consulted them) and not even two persons differed (from the opinion held by the earlier delegates). They said: Our opinion is that you better go back along with the people and do not make them go to this scourge, So 'Umar made announcement to the people: In the morning I would be on the back of my side. So they (set forth in the morning), whereupon Abu 'Ubaida bin Jarrah said: Are you going to run away from the Divine Decree? Thereupon 'Umar said: Had it been someone else to say this besides you! 'Umar (in fact) did not approve of his opposing (this decision) and he said: Yes, we are running from the Divine Decree (to the) Divine Decree. You should think if there had been camels for you and you happened to get down in a valley having two sides, one of them covered with verdure and the other being barren, would you not (be doing) according to the Divine Decree if you graze them in verdure? And in case you graze them in the barren land (even then you would be grazing them) according to the Divine Decree. There happened to come 'Abdul Rahman bin 'Auf and he had been absent in connection with some of his needs. He said: I have with me a knowledge of it, that I heard Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) as saying: If you hear of its presence (the presence of plague) in a land, don't enter it, but if it spreads in the land where you are, don't fly from it. Thereupon 'Umar bin Khattab praised Allah and then went back?

This hadith has been reported on the authority of Ma'mar with the same chain of transmitters but with this addition: "Do you think that he would graze in the barren land but would abandon the green land? Would you not attribute it to be a failing on his part? He said: Yes. He said: Then proceed. And he moved on until he came to Madinah. And he said to me: This is the right place, or he said: That is the destination if Allah so wills.

This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of 'Abdullah bin Harith with a slight variation of wording.

'Amir bin Rabi'ah reported: 'Umar went to Syria and as he came to Sargh, information was given to him that an epidemic had broken out in Syria. 'Abdul Rahman bin 'Auf narrated to him that Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) had said: When you hear of its presence in a land, don't move towards it, and when it breaks out in a land and you are therein, then don't run away from it. So 'Umar bin Khattab came back from Sargh.