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TAG: Hazrat Umar Farooq

Humbleness of Umar Bin Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him)

AS was his custom, Umar Bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the Leader of the Believers, once went out at night to look after the needs of the people and to make sure that everyone was safe. As he passed by an open area in Madina, he heard the moans of a woman coming out from a small and shabby house, at the door of which was a man seated.

Umar greeted him and asked him how he was. The man said that he was from the desert and had come seeking to reap some generosity from the Leader of the Believers.

Umar asked him about the woman and the moaning noises, and the man, not knowing that he was speaking to the Leader of the Believers, said, “Go away, may Allah have mercy on you, and do not ask about what does not concern you.”

However, Umar persisted in asking the same question, offering to help if he could. And so the man informed him, “Indeed she is my wife, who is about to give birth, yet there is no one here to help her.” Umar left the man, returned to his house in a hurry, entered, and said to his wife, Umm Kulthum (may Allah be pleased with her), “Will you take reward that Allah has brought to you?” She said, “And what is that goodness and reward, O Umar?”

As soon as he informed her, she stood and took all that she needed to help the woman deliver her baby and all that the newborn would need as well. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Believers took a pot and with it some (food) and grains.

He and his wife hurried off together until they reached the shabby house. While Umm Kulthum went in to help the pregnant woman, Umar remained outside with the husband and cooked the food he brought with him.

From inside the house, Umm Kulthum called out, “O Leader of the Believers, give glad tidings to your companion that Allah has provided him with a young boy.”

The man was amazed to hear that it was the Leader of the Believers who were seated with him cooking the food; and the man’s wife inside was shocked to learn that it was the wife of the Caliph who came to meet her and help her in her shabby house.

Umar ibn al-Khattaab

Once a caravan came to Madinah. It had women and children too with it. `Umar said to Abdul Rahman ibn `Auf, “Can you stand guard on them tonight?” So `Umar, the second caliph, and he, kept awake that night together and kept vigil over the caravan. During that nightly vigil they both offered Tahajjud (late night) prayer as well. `Umar on hearing a baby’s cry and approaching, said to the mother, “Fear Allah and do look after your child carefully.” Saying this he came back to his own position. Once again he heard it crying, and going over to her mother once again gave her the same advice. When during the last part of the night the child cried once again, `Umar came to its mother and said, “Woe to you! You appear not to be a good mother. How is it that your child could not sleep peacefully during the night.” The woman little suspecting that she was speaking to the Amir of the believers, said in reply, “May Allah bless you, O man, you have pestered me several times during the night. I want to wean it forcefully (before time), but the child is intractable.” `Umar asked her, “And pray, why wean it forcefully?” She said in reply, “Because `Umar grants allowance only for such children that have been weaned.” `Umar asked her, “How old is your child?” And she told him it was only a few months old. And `Umar asked the woman not to be hasty in weaning her child. Then he led the morning prayer in such a state that his weeping made the recital of the Quran inaudible and unintelligible. At the end of the prayer he said, “`Umar is ruined. He killed the children of the believers!” And at this, he ordered the crier to proclaim in the town of Madinah that the mothers should not wean their children only for the sake of allowance for the suckling. From now on, every child, suckling or weaned, shall receive a stipend. And it was also proclaimed throughout the length and the breadth of the Islamic state. Unparalleled in the Entire History of Mankind

By Allah! The entire history of mankind is unable to produce such a brilliant and glorious incident. None among the civilizations of the world can present any personage like `Umar. He kept awake the whole night, keeping guard over the caravan and the caravan slept in peace. And we should keep in mind that he was the head of the Islamic state, and wielded great authority and power that had conquered the then mighty empires of Rome and Persia. And in spite of all that he did what a petty guard detailed to patrol the vicinity of a caravan in its sojourn would not do. He drew the attention of the crying child’s mother to her babe and asked her to restrain it from crying. Is there anyone who can mete out that treatment to the children in a passing Caravan, like `Umar? Who is there among the greatest personages of the history of mankind who can even touch the great human consciousness of `Umar?

The Awakening Of Umar Bin Al-Khattab

Umar was 27 when the Prophet (peace be upon him) began his mission. Young Omar was one of those who did not care to listen to the message of Islam. He was leading the old way of life. As years went by, Islam made slow headway. This made Omar angry. He wondered how people who once went over to Islam never went back to their old faith. One of Omar’s own maid-servants became a Muslim. He beat her as much as he could, but she would not give up the new faith.

At last in the sixth year of the Prophet’s mission, a number of Muslims left for Abyssinia. This made Umar boil with rage. “Here is a man,” he thought to himself “who has split the people. People lived smoothly enough. He appeared on the scene. He has torn son from father and brother from brother. Now his followers are running away to another land. Surely Muhammad is the cause of all trouble. I must slay him and put an end to the trouble.”

With this resolve, Omar drew his sword and set out to kill the Prophet (peace be upon him). On the way, he met a friend who asked him why he looked so upset. Omar told him what he was going to do. “You better take care of your own kin first,” said the friend, “Your sister and her husband have gone over to Islam.”
These words changed the direction of Omar’s anger. He went straight to the house of his sister, Fatima. He knocked at the door. Someone was reciting the Qur’an inside. Fatima was terrified when she heard Omar’s voice. She hid the portion of the Qur’an she was reading and opened the door.
“What was it that you were reciting just now?” Omar demanded.
“Oh nothing,” said the sister.
“Why nothing?” he shouted in rage. “I have heard it. I know you both have accepted Muhammad’s faith.” Saying this, he began to beat his brother-in-law, Saeed. Fatima ran to his help and got a blow to the head. The head began to bleed. This made the couple gather courage. “Yes, we have become Muslims,” they shouted at Omar. “Do what you will.” The sight of the bleeding sister deeply moved Omar. Fatima was such a loving sister! Surely there must be some great truth in the Qur’an which had won her innocent heart. “Would you let me have a look at the Qur’an?” said Omar.
Fatima handed him the few pages of the book she had.
Omar sat down to study the pages. Soon his face changed. His anger cooled down. The fear of Allah gripped his heart. He wept and declared, “Surely this is the word of Allah.”
Omar was again on his way to the place of the Prophet (peace be upon him). But he was a changed man. He was not going to slay him but to embrace his faith.
The Noble Prophet was sitting in the company of some men. He saw Omar coming and asked, “Omar , what brings you here?”
“O Prophet of Allah!” replied Omar, “I have come to embrace Islam.” Great was the joy of the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers. Loud shouts of “Allah is the Greatest” rented the air of Makkah.
Soon everyone knew that Omar was no longer an enemy of Islam. It was a great day for Islam because one of its bitterest enemies had become its staunch follower.

What You And Me Can Do For Others

Imagine that you were witness to a gory hit-and-run accident: from your vantage point you can actually see the helpless, wounded victims, hear their groans of pain and their cries for help.

What would you do?
If you were a doctor or health-care worker, you would attempt to rescue, resuscitate and revive the victims. If you weren’t qualified/equipped to help them yourself, you would try and flag down other cars and get other people to help and carry the victims to the nearest hospital. At the very least, you would call an ambulance or emergency services so that they could be helped.

Only an individual with an exceptionally hardened heart would survey the scene and decide: “It’s not my problem,” avert his eyes and go away without trying to help in some way.

In my mind, this somewhat grisly analogy is apt for the state of our Ummah, and our inexcusable apathy towards it.

It’s almost as if we, the regular, average, and ordinary Muslims have abdicated our responsibility and conveniently look towards the scholars, students of knowledge, the rich and influential to do their bit – and hope it makes up for our reluctance/indifference.
Interestingly, our collective inertia is indicative of the state of our faith.

Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy upon him) says in his book Al-Fawaa’id: “There are different ways of supporting a fellow believer: with one’s wealth, with one’s position of authority or power, by means of physical service, by offering sincere advice and guidance, by du’a and asking for forgiveness for them, and by feeling their pain.

“The level of one’s support will be affected by the level of one’s faith. The weaker a person’s faith, the weaker his support will be; the stronger the faith, the stronger the support. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was the greatest of all people in his support for his companions, so the more closely his followers follow him, the greater will be their support for their fellow-believers.”

To the sincere do-gooder, every act of kindness – ranging from the big things to Al-Ma’oon (the smallest good deeds, that could consist of supplying ordinary provisions like sugar, salt and water to the needy) – is fuel in the “race towards forgiveness from the Lord, and towards Paradise.”

There’s the famous story of Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) which illustrates this best: “During the days of the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, in an out of the way street in Madina, there lived a blind old woman. Umar would go to her house everyday to see if she required help, but he always found that someone else had anticipated his visit and supplied all the needs of the old lady. One day Umar went to the house of the lady earlier than usual and found that the man who visited the old lady every morning and served her, was none other than Abu Bakr.

Before becoming the Caliph, Abu Bakr used to milk the goats in the neighborhood, and when he became the Caliph, he passed by some women in the street, one of whom remarked that now that he had become the Caliph he would no longer milk the goats for them. Abu Bakr heard these remarks and said that the caliphate made no difference to him, and that he would continue to milk their goats.”

We have seen numerous people here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who seems to have inherited the same spirit of services: there are unknown brothers who visits the hospitals feeds the patients and tucked them in comfortably, made du’a for their speedy recovery– without divulging their name. Some brothers are regular visitor on weekends and just came around to help the patients.

A sister who used to make small packets of detergent powder to distribute to the pilgrims during Haj. She said she had never thought that a small gesture like this would be welcomed by them, but was pleasantly surprised when her little gift was appreciated and accepted gratefully.

It just goes to show that we are limited in our capacity to do good to our fellow Muslims only by our lack of imagination and will – not by a lack of material means.