Musnad Ahmad 2:39

Abu al-Yaman al-Hakam ibn Nafi’ narrated to us, Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd Allah narrated to us, from Rashid ibn Sa’d, from Humrah ibn ‘Abd Kalal, who said: ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab traveled toward al-Sham after his first journey to it. When he drew near to it, news reached him and those with him that the plague had spread within it. His companions said to him: "Return and do not cast yourself into it; for if you were to descend upon it while it is there, we would not see it as appropriate for you to depart from it." So he turned back toward Medina. He camped for the night, and I was the closest of the people to him. When he set out, I set out with him in his tracks, and I heard him saying: "They turned me back from al-Sham after I had drawn near to it because the plague is in it. Behold, my turning away from it does not delay my appointed time, and my coming to it would not have hastened my appointed time. Behold, if I were to reach Medina and finish the needs that I must attend to, I would travel until I entered al-Sham, then I would descend upon Hims. For I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, say: 'Allah shall surely raise from it on the Day of Resurrection seventy thousand who will have no reckoning and no punishment upon them. Their place of resurrection will be between the olive trees and its wall, in the red soil of it.'"