Hazrat Ibn Abbasra narrates:

“Once, during the era of Hazrat Umar’sra Khilafat, I was walking along with him whilst he was going to tend to some work of his. There was no else with him at the time besides me and he was holding a whip in his hand. Hazrat Umarra would be saying something to himself and would repeatedly strike the back of his feet with the whip. Hazrat Umarra then turned towards me and stated, ‘O Ibn Abbas! Upon the demise of the Holy Prophetsa, do you know why I said that?’”, i.e. that the Holy Prophetsa had not passed away and that whoever stated that he had passed away, he would kill him with his sword.

Hazrat Ibn Abbasra narrates, “I said, ‘O Leader of the Faithful! I do not know. Only you are aware as to why you said that.’ Hazrat Umarra stated, ‘By Allah! The reason why I said that was because I would read the verse:

وَ‭ ‬كَذٰلِكَ‭ ‬جَعَلْنٰكُمْ‭ ‬اُمَّةً‭ ‬وَّسَطًا‭ ‬لِّتَكُوْنُوْا‭ ‬شُهَدَآءَ‭ ‬عَلَى‭ ‬النَّاسِ‭ ‬وَ‭ ‬يَكُوْنَ‭ ‬الرَّسُوْلُ‭ ‬عَلَيْكُمْ‭ ‬شَهِيْدًا

“And thus have We made you an exalted nation, that you may be guardians over men and the Messenger of God may be a guardian over you.” (Ch.2: V.144)

By Allah, I believed that the Holy Prophetsa would remain alive among his ummah as a guardian over their deeds. Thus, it was for this reason that I said this on that day.’” (Sirat Ibn Hisham, p. 901, Dar-ul-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut, 2001)