Simplicity/Frugality/Minimalism practices we can learn from Caliph Umar r.a

Once when a chief of some tribe was to come and pay homage to Caliph Umar, his friends wished that he should change from the coarse wool to cotton dress. But nobody dare make the suggestion. Consequently they approached his daughter Hafsah. When she talked to him about it, he became angry and said, “Just tell me what was the best dress of the Prophet”. She said, “It was a pair of clothes of reddish colour which he wore on Fridays or while receiving some envoy”.

“What was his food?” he enquired. “It was barley bread that we used to take”.

What was his bedding?” he asked. “It was a piece of thick cloth. During summer, it was double-folded, while in winter half was spread on the ground and half was used to cover him”, she replied.

Umar said, “Hafsah, go tell those people that I am not going to budge an inch from what the prophet s.a.w did, come what may”.

Once he was even seen giving an address in the mosque with twelve patches on his shirt.

This was the standard of living of a person who was a dread for the monarchs of the world, and whose empire stretched from Egypt to India. Can the world produce an example of any ruler so great and yet so hard on himself?