During the caliphate of Umar Ibn Al Khattab, God bless him, Umar wanted to appoint Abu-d Dardaa as a governor in Syria. Abu-d Dardaa refused his offer politely, saying:

"If you want me to go there to teach people the Qur’an, the traditions (Sunnah) of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and pray with them, I will go."

Umar agreed and Abu-d Dardaa left for Damascus. There he found the people immersed in luxury and soft living. This appalled him. He called the people to the mosque and told them:

"O people of Damascus! You are my brethren in religion, neighbors who live together, O people of Damascus! What is it that prevents you from being affectionate towards me and responding to my advice while I do not seek anything from you?”

“I see that you abandon what Allah (swt) has commanded you to do. Is it reasonable that I see you gathering and hoarding what you do not eat, and erecting buildings in which you do not live, and holding out hopes for things you cannot attain.

"Peoples before you, have amassed wealth, made great plans and had high hopes. But it was not long before what they had amassed was destroyed, their hopes dashed and their houses turned into graves. Such were the people of Aad, O people of Damascus. They filled the earth with possessions and children.

"Who is there who will purchase from me today the entire legacy of Aad for two dirhams?"

After his touching speech, people wept and their sobs could be heard from outside the mosque. From that day, Abu-d Dardaa began to attend the meeting places of the people of Damascus frequently. He moved around in their market-places, teaching, answering questions, trying to advise anyone who had become careless or insensitive. He used every opportunity and every occasion to awaken people and direct them to the right path.

Once, he was passing by a group of people crowded around a man. They were insulting and beating him severely. He came up to them and said: "What's the matter?"

"This is a man has committed a grave sin," they replied.

"What do you think you would do if he had fallen into a well?" asked Abu-d Dardaa." “Wouldn't you try to get him out?"

"Certainly," they said.

"Don't insult him and don't beat him. Instead admonish him and make him aware of the consequences of what he had done. Then give praise to God who has preserved you from falling into such a sin."

"Don't you hate him?" they asked Abu-d Dardaa.

"I only detest what he had done and if he abandons such practice, he is my brother."

The man then began to cry and publicly announced his repentance.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, narrated that someone asked Abu-d-Dardaa, to advise him, he replied:

"Remember Allah when you are comfortable, He will remember you when you are in difficulty, and when you set your eyes upon something in this world, think about how it will end!"

He also said: “let the mosque be your house for indeed I heard Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) say:

“The mosque is the house of every God-conscious person and God Almighty has guaranteed serenity, comfort, mercy and staying on the path leading to his pleasure, to those for whom mosques are their houses."

On another occasion, there was a group of people sitting in the street, chatting and looking at passers-by. Abu-d Dardaa came up to them and said:

"My sons, the monastery of a Muslim is his house in which he controls himself and lowers his gaze. Beware of sitting in market-places because this fritters away time."

Muawiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan, God bless him, was the governor of Damascus while Abu-d Dardaa was there. He asked Abu-d Dardaa for his daughter’s hand to his son, But Abu-d Dardaa did not agree. Instead his daughter was married to a young poor man who was devoted to Islam.

People heard about this and began talking and asking: Why did Abu-d Dardaa refuse to let his daughter marry Yazid? When they asked Abu-d Dardaa, he replied:

"I have only sought to do what is good for ad-Dardaa." That was his daughter's name. “What would you think of ad-Dardaa if servants were to serve her and if she were to find herself in palaces, the glamour of which, dazzled the eyes? What would become of her religion then?"

Caliph Umar once came to visit Abu d-Dardaa in Syria. He found that there was no light in the house, also he felt Abu-d Dardaa's pillow and realized it was an animal's saddle. He touched the place where Abu-d Dardaa sleep and knew it was just small pebbles. He also felt the sheet which he covered himself with and was astonished to find it so flimsy that it couldn't possibly protect him from the cold of Damascus.

So he asked him: "Shouldn't I make things more comfortable for you?”

Abu d-Dardaa told him: "Do you remember, Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) saying (hadith)?”Hadn’t he said:

“Let what is sufficient for anyone of you in this world be like the provisions of a rider"

Imaam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, also narrated that Abu-d-Dardaa’, radhiallaahu `anhu, used to say,

"Woe unto him, and what an agony is awaiting one who cares only about amassing money in this world! Woe unto him who opens his mouth agape and drools at hearing the sound of money, who looks aghast, just like an idiot when he thinks about it, who stares at what people have, and who does not see what he has; and if he could, he would pursue such an obsession by day and night. Woe unto him! What an austere reckoning and a grievous punishment are awaiting him!"