As a matter of fact...

As a matter of fact, `Umar ibn al-Khattab had not been devoted to accompanying the Holy Prophet and learning from him; rather he and one of his friends who belonged to the Ansar used to visit the Holy Prophet by turns. Al-Bukhariy has narrated that `Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “My neighbor, one of the Ansar, and I lived in the quarter of the tribe of Umayyah ibn Zayd, which was on the skirts of al-Madinah.

We used to visit the Holy Prophet by turns; I would visit him a day and my neighbor would visit him on the other. When it was my turn, I would go there and carry the news of the Divine Revelation to my neighbor; and when it was his turn, he would carry for me the news and the like.”[^2] Umar ibn al-Khattab was also diverted from accompanying the Holy Prophet by roaming in marts and making business deals.

He used to say, “I was engaged in bargains in marts.”[^3] One day, Ubayy ibn Ka`b said to him, “While you were engaged in making deals in marts, I was engaged in the Holy Qur'an.”[^4] That was one of the reasons of the rarity of `Umar ibn al-Khattab’s meetings with the Holy Prophet.

Nevertheless, the new events required urgent solutions that must have been derived from the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah; and because the caliph had not comprehended all the items of the Holy Sunnah and the aspects of the interpretation of the texts of the Holy Qur'an, he had to face an unsolvable problem; if he would issue a verdict violating the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, he would be embarrassed before the Sahabah who would certainly declare the very accurate verdict, as found in the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, about that even as exactly as they had heard from the Holy Prophet.

For that reason, `Umar, at the outset, used to ask about the Holy Prophet’s judgment in such situation—so as to save himself from future embarrassment—or submit to what the Sahabah would mention from the Holy Prophet’s words and deeds without discussion.

All the same, if the state of asking the Sahabah about the events and situations involved would incessantly continue and if the fact that all the judgments should be always deduced from these texts would not be restrained, these two things would certainly entrap the caliph in new embarrassments whenever exigencies would necessitate a legal situation revealing the judgment of Almighty Allah and hence many opportunities would be missed by him.

It was therefore necessary to find an exit from such embarrassments and missing of opportunities.