ĂUmar-bin-KhaććĀb ē

The Second of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

He headed out alone in the direction of the holy KaĂbah. Despite the dark he immediately noticed the man called Muhammad Ē offering his prayer next to the holy sanctuary. He quietly slid behind the cloth covering the KaĂbah and slowly edged closer to Muhammad Ē. Unnoticed, he got close enough to hear what Muhammad Ē was reciting. The words were mesmerizing. Muhammad Ē must be a poet, how else could an unlettered man utter such words, he said to himself, but the very next recitation took him by complete surprise,

Verily this is the word of an honored Messenger. It is not the word of a poet, little is that you believe! (Q 69:40-1)

How could he read my mind, ĂUmar said to himself, he must be a magician. What he heard immediately following was enough to shake him to the core,

Nor is it the word of a soothsayer, little is that you remember! This is the Revelation sent down from the Lord of all that exists (Q 69: 42-3)

That was the first time the message of Islam permeated his heart in this manner. From that day onwards he was not the same man. The son of KhaććĀb had begun his journey to finally become Amąr-ul-Muāminąn (the leader of the Believers).

He was born in Makkah to KhaććĀb-bin-Nufail of Banu-ĂAdi clan of the tribe of Quraysh. His appellation was Abu-Ąafs and he was given the title of FĀrĈq by none other than our beloved Prophet Muhammad Ē. His lineage meets that of the Noble Prophet Ē some eight generations back.

He epitomized the Prophetic Ē narration, “The best people in jĀhiląya (ignorance) will be the best ones in Islam, once they have been granted the right understanding and guidance” (BĈkhĀrą). What started as a fierce animosity to the message of Islam was replaced by an undying faithfulness to the message of the QurāĀn and the Sunnah of the Noble Prophet Ē.

The story of his embracing Islam is deeply entrenched in the minds of all Muslim children because of the dramatic turn of events; here he was, heading to kill the Messenger Ē of Islam and shortly thereafter, he walked out of the house of the Noble Messenger Ē in the back drop of the air of Makkah resounding with AllĀhuAkbar, AllĀhuAkbar (God is the Greatest). ĂUmar had

become a Companion ē of the Messenger of Islam Ē in the sixth year of the Prophethood. He was thirty two years old then and his courage was unrivaled. He was an excellent horseman, swordsman and a wrestler. After embracing Islam, he went straight to the house of ĂAmr-bin-HishĀm (Abu-Jahl) to announce his conversion. Even when the Muslims were ordered to immigrate to Yathrib (Madinah al-Munawarah) in secrecy, he circumbulated the KaĂbah, prayed his two rakĀĂ and then walked straight to the leaders of Quraysh with a naked sword in his hand and challenged them to stop him if they dared. None did.

In the early days of the advent of Islam there were only seventeen literate people among Quraysh and ĂUmar was one of them. The Prophet Ē once said that he had a dream, in which people were brought before him wearing shirts which reached to the chests of some and longer for others, but ĂUmar’s shirt was dragging and when asked about its meaning, he Ē said, “Religion.”

It was the recognition of his extraordinary attributes that the Noble Prophet Ē said about ĂUmar,

“Allah has established Čaqq (Truth) on the tongue and in the heart of ĂUmar.” (Tirmidhą)

“In the previous nations there have been men who were MuĄadath and if there is a MuĄadath in my Ummah, it is ĂUmar” (MuĄadath is one who is inspired by Allah without being a Prophet). (BukhĀrą)

“If there was going to be a Prophet after me, it would have been ĂUmar.” (Tirmidhą)

His glory saw no bounds after he embraced Islam. He was the first one to use the term of Amąr-ul-Muāminąn (the leader of the Believers), a term which still inspires awe. He was one of “The Four” who would forever be remembered as KhulĀfa-e-RĀshidąn (the rightly guided caliphs) and finally, he was the fourth in the most venerable list of “The Ten”; ĂAshara-Mubasharah (the ten who were given the glad tidings of Heaven in this world).

Ibn-MasĂĈd ē is reported to have said that ĂUmar’s ē excellence is established by four things:

1. He counseled the killing of the captives of the battle of Badr which was affirmed by the verse of QurāĀn (8:68).

2. He wished for the mothers of the believers to observe the hijĀb and later on the verses of hijĀb were revealed and the Prophet Ē said, “Revelation is caused in my house and you were already inspired.”

3. The Prophet Ē prayed to AllĀh Ī to strengthen Islam with the conversion of ĂUmar to Islam

4. He pledged allegiance to Abu-Bakr (after the demise of the Prophet Ē) before anyone did.

MujĀhid ē has also been reported to have said, “We would often mention that the devil remained in confinement during the caliphate of ĂUmar and was released after his death.”

The historians are unanimous in declaring the epoch of the Muslim Empire to be during the caliphate of ĂUmar. Damascus was conquered by KhĀlid-bin-Waląd ē and Abu-Ubaidah-bin-al-JarrĀh ē. The victory crippled the Roman Empire. Under the command of SaĂd-bin-Abi-Waqas ē, the battle of QĀdisąya saw the fall of the mighty Persian Empire. Egypt was overtaken by the army lead by Amr-bin-al-ĂĊs ē. The fall of Jerusalem without spilling blood reflected the true spirit of Islamic equality as it saw the leader of a magnificent empire holding the halter of his camel on foot while his slave rode as they approached the gates of Jerusalem. That was enough for the Jewish elders to hand over the keys of the city to the Muslim army.

Some of his prodigious services for the Muslim state and its inhabitants included the establishment of a public treasury (bait-al-mĀl), the introduction of the Hijri calendar, the measurement and record keeping of public land and a census system, establishment of police and prisons department, fixing of financial allowances for the poor amongst the Christians and the Jews, a specialized system for mail delivery across the Muslim land and so many more to recount here.

It is said that once ĂUmar ē was returning from an expedition and came upon the shack of a poor old woman. He asked her what she thought about the caliph ĂUmar and she complained that she was in abject poverty and the caliph was unaware of her afflictions.

“But how can ĂUmar know about your state here in the desert while he sits in Medinah?” he asked her.

“Then why does he call himself the caliph?” she replied, upon hearing which ĂUmar ē cried and asked her how much she would take in gold dinars to forgive him and with her consent, he set a monthly stipend for her from the bait-al-mĀl.

He lived an exemplary simple and austere life. His clothes were usually patched. Once people had to wait for long time for him to come out of his

house because he only had one outfit to wear and he had washed it. When advised to use honey for an illness, he refused to use the stock in the public treasury without the permission of the people.

The Persians had not forgotten their defeat under the leadership of ĂUmar. A Persian by the name of Abu-lulu-Feroze managed to find his way into the household of ĂUmar on the pretext of his extraordinary woodworking skill. Soon after, as ĂUmar lead the Fajr salĀh one day, Feroz slid behind him and stabbed him multiple times. The leader of the believers stumbled, but not before grabbing hold of Abdur-RahmĀn-bin-ĂAwf ē and asking him to lead the salĀh which he did, as ĂUmar ē fell grievously wounded. Over the next few days, as he laid waiting for the approaching death, he recalled that the Prophet Ē had once named ten persons who would surely go to the Paradise. Of those who survived, six were present in Medinah and ĂUmar ē summoned them and ordered them to deliberate and select one of them as the caliph. He then did something extraordinary which reflected his immense piety and sagacity. He added a seventh vote in case of a tie but one who was expressly excluded from the candidacy of the caliphate; his son Abdullah-bin-ĂUmar ē. The deliberations lead to the nomination of UthmĀn-bin-ĂAfĀn ē as the next caliph.

Before his death on 1st Muharram, 24 hijri, his son Abdullah came to saeedah ĂAyesha Ĕ and requested her that the caliph was begging her permission to be buried next to the Noble Prophet Ē and Abu-Bakr Siddique ē, to which she agreed and so that is where he lies now, in the company of the best of mankind and the best of this Ummah, the two he loved the most. May Allah Ī shower His Mercy and Blessings on ĂUma-bin-KhaććĀb ē.