The dealing with famine (the year of ashes)
Al-Tabari narrates on the authority of Abd al-Rahman bin Ka`b bin Malik, saying: “The ashes were a severe famine that afflicted the people in the city and its surroundings, so that the beasts made shelter to the people, and even made the man slaughter the sheep and heal it from its ugliness, and it is desolate.
This year was called the year of ashes because
The wind was whipping the dust like ashes, the drought intensified and the morsel was heavy, and people rushed from the depths of the desert to the city to live there, and they sought a solution from the Commander of the Faithful, so he gathered in Medina - without its inhabitants - about sixty thousand Arabs, and they stayed for several months without food, except for what is presented to them from the treasury of the Muslims and from the people of Medina.
1- Seeking Allah for help and praying for rain
2 - His tawassul by al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace
3- He made himself an example for people
Ibn Saad mentions in his Tabaqat that Umar, may God be pleased with him, at the time of the ashes, used to bring bread with oil in the evening, until they sacrificed one day, carrots and fed them to the people and they put for him from it, He was brought, and when it came out from the hump and from the liver, He said: Where is this from? They said: O Commander of the Faithful, from the camels that we slaughtered today, He said: "Bakhin, miserable! What a bad ruler I am. If I eat its goodness and feed people like its karadis (the head of a bone with a brain) Lift this plate, bring us other than this food, He said: Bread and oil were brought and he broke it with his hand, and he spread that bread, then said: Woe to you, Yarfa, carry this dish, until you go with to the people of the house of Yathmagh, For I have not come to them for three days, so I think they are desolate, so put it in their hands.
4 - Preparing camps for refugees in Ramada
In the year of Ramada, Arabs came to Medina from every part of the Arabian Peninsula, so Umar, may God be pleased with him, established an institution for these refugees to take care of and care for them
On the authority of Aslam
he said: When it was the year of Ramada, the Arabs came from every side and came to Medina. Omar had ordered men to treat them, and I heard him say one night: Count who dines with us. So they counted them from the midwife, and found that they were seven thousand men, and they gathered the sick men and dependents, so they were forty thousand, then, after a few days, the men and children reached sixty thousand, and they did not stop until God sent the sky, and when it rained, I saw Omar had appointed someone to take them out to the desert, and they give them food and lambs to their desert, And death had befallen them, and he saw that two-thirds of them had died, and Omar's pots were used by workers from mednight to make gargoor and make porridge.
5 - appointed princes on the outskirts of the city to inspect the conditions of the people
They were supervising the division of food and food among the people, and when evening came, they would gather with him and tell him everything they were in, and he would direct them.
6- Seeking help from the people of the cities
Omar, may God be pleased with him, relied at the beginning of the year of Ramada on the resources of the treasury, and on what of the people of Medina, including the Muhajireen and the Ansar, as he did not resort to asking for relief from the regions and cities until after he ran out of everything in his possession and in the possession of the people of Medina, Al-Hafiz Ibn Katheer said and he dates the year of Ramada: “In the year of Ramada, there was a drought in the land of Hijaz, and people starved severely, and the neighborhoods shuddered to Medina, and none of them had provisions left, so they turned to the Commander of the Faithful, and he spent on them from the proceeds of the treasury of money, from what was in it of food and money, until it was spent.
And after the resources of the treasury ran out
he wrote to the princes of the cities to help the people of Medina and those around it. On the authority of Saif bin Omar, that Omar wrote to the rulers of the cities, asking for help from the people of Medina and its surroundings, the first person Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah came to him with four thousand camels of food, so he assigned it to those around the city, when he finished, he returned to him and ordered four thousand dirhams for him, He said: I have no need for it, O Commander of the Faithful, I only wanted God, so do not enter this world upon me. He said: Take it, there is nothing wrong with that if you do not ask for it. He refused, and said: take it, for I have been entrusted to the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, like this, and he told me the same as I told you, so I told him as you told me, so he gave it to me. Abu Ubaidah accepted and went to work.
Omar also wrote to Abu Musa in Basra saying, “Oh Gotha, for the nation of Muhammad.” Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan sent three thousand camels carrying food and arrived from Iraq, a thousand camels carrying flour, and he wrote to Amr ibn al-Aas, seeking help from him, so he sent him a thousand camels carrying flour, and he sent twenty ships carrying flour and fat to the sea, and he sent him five thousand clothes, and Omar, may God be pleased with him, ordered that this provision be distributed to all Arab neighborhoods in their places through committees that he formed for that.
7- Delaying the payment of zakat in the year of Ramada:
Umar, may God be pleased with him, stopped obligating people to pay zakat in the year of Ramada until the famine ended and the land became green, so he collected zakat for the year of Ramada, It is as if he considered it a debt for those who are able to fill the deficit of needy and poor individuals, and let him remain in the treasury after he has spent it all. It is narrated on the authority of Yahya bin Abd al-Rahman bin Hatib: that Umar bin al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, delayed giving charity in the year of Ramada, He did not send the messengers, and when it was near and God lifted the drought, He commanded them to go out, so they took two aqal - al-aqal: alms of the Sunnah - so he commanded them to divide an aqal, and present it with an aqal. Any yearly charity.
8 - Not to cut off the hand of the thief in the year of famine
Umar did not cut off the hand of the slaves who took a camel and slaughtered it, and ordered their master Hatib to pay the price of the camel, It is narrated that the servants of Hatib bin Abi Balta'ah stole a camel belonging to a man from Muzaina, so Omar brought them and they admitted it, so he sent for Abd al-Rahman bin Hatib, so he came and said to him: the servants of Hatib stole the she-camel of a man from Muzaina and took it upon themselves. Omar said: O Katheer bin Al-Salt, go and cut off their hands. When he took charge of them, Umar sent them back, then he said: As for God, were it not that I know that you use them and starve them to the point that if one of them ate what God made forbidden to him, it would be lawful for him, I would cut off their hands, and by God, if I did not, I would exact a fine from you that would cause you pain, then he said: O Muzni, how much did I want your she-camel from you? He said: Four hundred. Omar said: Go and give him eight hundred.
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