The Writing of the Diwan and the Stipend

تدوين الديوان وفرض العطاء

Medina

Umar consulted the Muslims on writing a diwan — Ali: 'divide each year all you gather, keep nothing'; Uthman: 'much wealth — uncounted, who took and who did not will go unmarked'; al-Walid ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira: 'I saw Syria's kings with a diwan and an army — write a diwan, raise an army'. He took the last, and called Quraysh's genealogists — Aqil ibn Abi Talib, Makhrama ibn Nawfal, Jubayr ibn Mut'im — 'write the people by their ranks'. They began with Banu Hashim, then Abu Bakr's folk, then Umar's by the caliphate — 'I would it were so,' said Umar, 'but begin with the Prophet's kin, nearest then nearest, till you set Umar where God set him'. Banu Adi came arguing for his primacy — 'bakh, bakh, Banu Adi: you would eat off my back and take my hasanat — my two companions walked a road and I will not differ; we won favour and reward only through Muhammad, our honour and the noblest Arabs, then nearest then nearest; by God, if the Ajam come with works and we without, they are worthier of him on the Last Day — the slow of deed is not sped by lineage'.