Original content

English translation

The Commander of the Faithful Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, during his caliphate was plastering a wall with clay in Medina, when a Jew came before him to complain that the governor of Basra had bought goods from him for a hundred thousand dirhams and was delaying the payment of their price. He said: Do you have a scrap of paper? The man said: No. He took up a potsherd and wrote upon it: 'Those who complain of you are beyond counting, and those who give thanks are scarce. Beware of the causes of complaint, or rise up from the seat of government.' And at the end he wrote: 'Written by Umar ibn al-Khattab.' He neither set a seal upon it nor inscribed any royal cipher, yet so deeply was the force of his justice and the awe of his rule fixed in men's minds that when the Jew handed that potsherd to the governor of Basra—who was mounted on horseback—he dismounted, kissed the ground, and paid the Jew's due in full, while the Jew remained standing, still mounted. When the king possesses no glory and firm rule, / the insolent drag him down into abjection. When the lion's teeth and claws fall out, / he takes a slap even from lame foxes.