Note 398 — Chapter XXVII · THE LATER YEARS OF OMAR’S REIGN—DOMESTIC EVENTS. A.H. XVII.-XXIII. A.D. 638–644.

Otba came on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and there besought Omar to allow him to resign his government. Omar refused, and as Otba died on his way back, the Caliph was much distressed. He visited his tomb to pray over it, and said that he would have reproached himself as the cause of his death—‘had it not been already written in the decrees of the Lord.’