By Moin Qazi, New Age Islam
27 October 2022
Amongst the
nations before your time, there have been inspired people (who were not
Prophets), and if there is one amongst my Ummah, he is Umar
- Prophet
Muhammad
Umar’s Biography
Here are glimpses
of the biography of Umar that shaped his destiny as well as that of Islam.
Noble Lineage
Umar came from an
impeccable pagan stock. His father expelled his half-brother, Zayd (one of the
four Hanif), from Makkah many years earlier because of his apparent lack
of respect for the old gods. The pedigree of Umar is Umar, the son of Khattab,
the son of Tufail, the son of Abd al-Uzza, the son of Ribah, the son of
Abdulla, the son of Qurat, the son of Zurah, the son of Adi, the son of Ka’b,
the son of Lovayy, the son of Fahr, the son of Malik.
The people of
Arabia are primarily descendants of Adnan or Qahtan, and the descent of the
former may be traced to Ismail. Removed to the eleventh degree from Adnan,
Fahr, the son of Malik, was a person of significant influence and power, and
the famous tribe of Quraysh is his descendant. Ten individuals acquired great
eminence among the Quraysh because of their strong capabilities and were the
founders of several separate clans named after them. These were Hashim,
Ommayya, Naufal Abd al-Dar, Asad, Taim, Makhzum, Adi, Jamah, and Samah. Umar is
a descendant of Adi in the direct line. He was a prince among the Quraysh, a
man who liked his wine as much as his hunting and was educated enough to write
with ease.
Babyhood
Like Muhammad,
Umar had the same experience of being reared by Bedouin foster parents in their
desert tents. One example is when Umar rode through Dajnan in the desert east
of Makkah, its familiar landscape. A memory of these distant childhood days
among the Bedouin stirred in him. ‘There was a time, he recalled to his
Companions, ‘when I roamed the desert as a camel herd, dressed in a fleece
jacket, and whenever I sat down tired, my father would beat me. Now I live in a
time when I need reckon none as my superior except God.’
It was the custom
of all the great families of Arab towns to send their sons into the desert soon
after their birth to be suckled and weaned and spend part of their childhood
amongst one of the Bedouin tribes. It was not just the desert’s fresh air that
they wished their sons to imbibe. That was for their bodies, but the desert also
had its bounty for souls. It was believed that one learned the qualities of
self-discipline, nobility, and freedom in the desert. A sojourn in the desert
also offered an escape from the domination of time and the city's corruption.
Moreover, it
provided the opportunity to become a better speaker through exposure to
eloquent Arabic spoken by the Bedouin. In this way, the bond with the desert
and its purity and sobriety was renewed for city dwellers in every generation. Like
Muhammad, Umar also spent his babyhood in the Arab countryside.
One of the most
striking facts about Arabian society was that the spoken language was kept in
its purest form by the nomadic tribes. It is almost as if the lack of material
objects and the lack of written forms kept the joy and vitality of the language
at its most acute. It alone maintained the breathless virility and
inventiveness. Nobility and freedom were inseparable, and the nomad was free.
In the desert, a man was conscious of being the lord of space, and in virtue of
that lordship, he escaped from the domination of time.
Umar’s Youth
‘Umar was born
into a respected Quraysh family thirteen years after the birth of Muhammad. In
his youth, he used to tend to his father’s camels in the plains near Makkah.
His father was famed for his intelligence among his tribe. He was a middle-class
merchant and is believed to be a ruthless man and emotional polytheist who
often mistreated Umar. During his later political rule, Umar would comment
about his father, “My father Al-Khattab was a ruthless man. He used to make me
work hard; if I didn’t work, he beat me and worked me to exhaustion.”
Umar’s family was
known for its extensive knowledge of genealogy. When he grew up, ‘Umar was
proficient in this branch of knowledge and in swordsmanship, wrestling, and the
art of speaking. He also learned to read and write while still a child, a scarce
thing in Makkah then. ‘Umar earned his living as a merchant. His trade took him
to many foreign lands and he met many people. This experience gave him an
insight into the affairs and problems of men. ‘Umar’s personality was dynamic,
self-assertive, frank, and straightforward. He always spoke whatever was in his
mind, even if it displeased others.
Umar was
twenty-seven when the Prophet proclaimed his mission. The ideas Muhammad was
preaching enraged him as much as they did the other notables of Makkah. He was
just as bitter against anyone accepting Islam as others among the Quraysh. When
his slave-girl accepted Islam, he beat her until he was exhausted and told her,
“I have stopped because I am tired, not out of pity for you.” Later after he
embraced Islam, he was the most ardent votary of the Prophet.
Umar’s Hatred of Islam
When the Prophet
proclaimed his apostlehood, the reaction among the Quraysh was violent. Umar,
then a young man, held the new faith to be a sacrilege of the idols of Ka’bah.
Young, well-built, and fiery-tempered as he was, Umar was at the forefront of
opposition to Islam.
Some accounts
have come down to us showing Umar’s attitude to Islam in the days before his
conversion. Umar had related that in the days of ignorance, he was one day
standing by an idol with several Quraysh when an Arab sacrificed a calf. From
the belly of the calf, the following cry was heard:
“O blood red one,
The deed is done.
A man will cry
Besides God, none.”
Umar, however,
dismissed the cry as a sheer hallucination.
It is on record
that along with some Arabs, Umar went to a soothsayer and asked him to look
into Muhammad's life, who had proclaimed a new faith. The soothsayer looked up
to heaven for a long time. Then he leaped and said:
“O men, God has honoured and chosen Muhammad,
Purified his heart and bowels.
His stay, among you,
O men will be short.”
Umar cursed the
soothsayer and returned home upset. By then, Labina, a slave girl in the house,
incurred his wrath by turning Muslim. When Umar knew of her conversion, he beat
her violently and asked her to retract. She said he might kill her, but she
would not leave Islam. After that, he won't think of Umar that he would beat
her every day and would stop only when he was exhausted. Despite that, the
slave girl remained steadfast.
Another shock
came when Umm Abdullah bint Khatamah, a lady related to Umar, also accepted
Islam. Umar was furious at her conversion. As she and her husband Amar bin
Rabiah and other early converts decided to migrate to Abyssinia, Umar felt
moved. He visited her and said, “Umm Abdullah are you going?” She said, By God,
you have made our living in Makkah very difficult. There is no option with us
but to migrate elsewhere.” Inadvertently Umar said, “Umm Abdullah, may God
protect you; go in peace.” At that time, Umm Abdullah felt that despite Umar’s
opposition to Islam, he would one day accept the new faith.
It has been said by
Umar himself that one day he came across the Prophet in the Ka’bah. The Prophet
was reciting verses from the Qur’an, and as Umar listened to them, he felt that
it was the work of some poet. Then the Prophet recited, “This is the revealed word
of God; it’s not the work of any poet. Yet you people do not believe”. Umar
felt that if this were not the work of any poet, it would be the work of a
soothsayer. After the Prophet recited the verses, “And this is not the word of
any soothsayer; it is divine word communicated through Gabriel.” Hearing these
verses, Umar stood transfixed for some time. In his heart of hearts, he thought
that perhaps truth lay with Muhammad.
Umar, however,
dismissed these feelings, and soon he was his former self, as usual, hostile to
Islam. He went to the Quraysh and participated in their meetings. They felt
concerned that the venom of the new faith was spreading, and the only remedy
was that Muhammad should be killed. All present at the meeting agreed that
Muhammad should be killed. Then the meeting invited volunteers who would destroy
the Prophet. Umar volunteered to kill the Prophet and vindicate the faith of
their forefathers.
The Entry into the
Islamic Fold
Besides Umar,
there was another strong, determined man opposed to Islam. This was the man known
initially as Abu Hakim (‘the father of wisdom’), but history remembers him as
Abu Jail (‘the father of ignorance), the avowed enemy of Islam. The Prophet
gave him the name Abu Jahl to denote his ignorance in not recognizing the truth
of Islam. On one occasion, traditional accounts reveal that the Prophet raised
his hands in supplication and begged God to strengthen Islam by whoever of the
two—Muar bin al Chatted or Abu Hakim—he loved most. To the enemies of Islam and
the Companions of the Prophet Muar, embracing Islam was an unthinkable notion. Muar
was in the twenty-seventh year of his age when Muhammad declared his prophet
hood.
The message of the
oneness of God had not been altogether unfamiliar to the ears of members of the
house of Muar owing to Said, his cousin who was an ardent advocate of
monotheism. The poems of Said are extant to the present day and throw light on
the purity of his soul and conscientious search for Truth. The following two
couplets are by him:
“Shall I, a
single deity, adore?
Or sink in awe, a
thousand gods, before?
The idols, Lat
and Uzi I, ignore
A wise and
cautious man can do no more”.
Aid’s son Saied
was the first to be converted to Islam. Saied married Muar’s sister Fatima, and
he persuaded her to embrace the new faith. Another respectable member of the
same family, Nu’aym ibn ‘Abd Allah, had likewise adopted Islam. Umar, however,
was as yet a stranger. One day, Prophet Muhammad was walking at the foot of
Mount As-Safa in Makkah when Abu Jahl met him. Abu Jahl began to hurl insults
at him and ridicule the message of the Oneness of God that he was preaching.
Some reports even say that he took a stone and hit Muhammad with it, causing
his head to bleed. The Prophet did not respond to the taunts, and Abu Jahl
moved to the Ka’bah at the center of the town, where he boasted to his tribe’s
people for what he had done.
It was just at
this time that Hamzah was coming back from hunting. Hamzah was a brave man who
was very popular with the people of Makkah and used to love hunting. He came
across the freed slave woman of `Abdullah bin Judean, who told him what had
happened to his nephew.
Hamah was
friendly and had an easy disposition. He was nonetheless a great stalwart of Quays,
and when roused, he was the most formidable and unyielding. His strong frame
now shook with anger as he had never felt, and his rage urged him to avenge his
nephew’s humiliation. Striding into the Mosque, he went straight for Abu Jail;
standing over him, he raised his bow and brought it down with all his force on
his back. “Wilt thou insult him,” he said, “now that I am of his religion, and
now that I avouch what he avouched? Strike me blow for blow if thou canst.” Abu
Jail appeared demoralized when some of the Makhzumites' presents rose to their
feet as if to help him. He motioned them to be seated, saying: “Let Abu ‘Umrah
be, for by God I reviled his brother’s son with a right ugly reviling.” From
that moment on, declaring before the people of Makkah that he believed in the
message of his nephew, Hamzah became one of the Prophet’s staunchest supporters
and did everything he could to protect him.
Umar happened to
be Abu Jahl’s nephew. He was angered by how the Prophet created division among
the Quraysh. He also could not swallow the insult heaped by Hamzah on his
uncle, Abu Jahl. In a pique of anger, he picked up his sword and decided to
kill the Prophet to avenge the humiliation of the Quraysh. ‘Umar was at this
time about twenty-six years old, a headstrong young man, not easily deterred,
and of great resolution. But unlike his uncle, he was pious, and here, in fact,
lay his chief motive for opposing the new religion. His father had brought him
up to venerate the Ka’bah and to respect everything that had come to be
inseparably connected with it in the way of gods and goddesses. It was all
woven together for him into a sacred unity that was not to be questioned.
Quraysh also had been one, but Makkah was now a city of two religions and
communities. He saw, moreover, that the trouble had one cause only. Remove the
man who was that cause; everything would soon be as it had been. There was no
other remedy, but that would be a certain remedy. He continued to brood along
these lines, and eventually, the day came soon after the unsuccessful envoys
returned from Abyssinia when a sudden wave of anger goaded him to action. He took
up his sword he set out from his house. No sooner had he left it than he came
face to face with Nu’aym ibn ‘Abd Allah, one of his fellow clansmen. Nu’aym had
entered Islam, but he kept this a secret in fear of ‘Umar and others of his
people. The grim expression he now saw on ‘Umar’s face prompted him to ask him
where he was going. “I am going to Muhammad, that renegade, who hath split
Quraysh into two,” said ‘Umar, “and I shall kill him.” Nu’aym tried to stop him
by pointing out that he would certainly be killed. But when he saw that ‘Umar
was deaf to such an argument, he thought of another way by which he might at
least delay him in time to give the alarm. This would mean betraying a secret
of fellow Muslims who, like himself, were concealing their Islamic identity.
Still, he knew that they would forgive him and even applaud him in the
circumstances. “O ‘Umar,” he said, “why not first go back to the people of
thine own house, and set them right.” “What people of my house?” said Umar.
“Thy brother-in-law Sa’id and thy sister Fatimah,” said Nu’aym. “They are both
followers of Muhammad.”
Astonished at
this startling news, Umar proceeded straight to his sister’s house. When he
knocked at the door, they studied the Qur’an with a young Companion, Khabbab.
Umar’s sister Fatima was terrified when she heard Umar’s voice and tried to
conceal the parchments of the Qur’an from which she was reciting. Umar had listened
to the recitation and confronted them scornfully, asking what they were repeating.
They both denied they were reading the Qur’an. Fatima had already hidden the
parchments before Umar came in. Umar insisted that he had heard them reciting
it. They remained stubborn and tried to deflect his interrogative questions.
This exasperated Umar. He sprang on his brother-in-law to strike him. When his
sister tried to intervene, he hit her account and she started bleeding. There
was chaos and disarray. Umar suddenly realized he didn’t do the right thing and
was filled with contrition and remorse. He realized his mistake. The tension
slowly defused. Fatima summoned the courage to speak out. “Yes, Umar, we are
Muslims and believe in God and his messenger. As for you, you can do what you
consider fit, but our stand is final; we will not budge from it.”
Umar was taken
aback. He caught his brother-in-law by the throat and said, “So you have
apostatized from the faith of your forefathers.” Saeed retorted, “Rather, we
have abandoned falsehood for truth.” Thereupon Umar was about to strike Saeed
when Fatima intervened, saying, “Hands off from my husband. If you have
anything to say, say it to me, but do not touch my husband.” Umar asked, “Is it
a fact that you have become Muslims.” She replied, “Yes. We have become
Muslims. You may kill us if you like, but we will not waver in our faith”.
Umar stayed his
hands and desired that the leaf they had been reading should be shown to him.
Fatima said he could not touch the sacred leaf until he washed his hands. Umar
washed his hands, and the holy leaf was handed over to him. It was the Sura
Ta Ha. It read:
Ta-Ha
We have not sent the Qur’an to thee,
To be an occasion for thy distress,
But only as an admonition to those who fear
God.
A revelation from Him,
Who created the earth and the heavens on high.
God most gracious,
It is firmly established on the throne of
authority.
To Him belongs what is in the heavens and on
earth,
And all between them and all beneath the soil.
If thou pronounce the word aloud, it’s no
matter
For verily He knoweth what is secret
And what is yet hidden.
Verily there is no god but He
To Him belongs the most beautiful names. (Q20:
1-8)
As Umar read the
verses repeatedly, he felt as if these verses were addressed to him in person,
and the mysterious Ta Ha referred to Umar the Man. Umar shuddered with the fear
of God, and he felt as if his conscience was upbraiding him, “Umar, how long
would you stay away from the path of truth? Has not the time come for you to
follow the truth?”
Umar then immediately
acknowledges the truth. Turning to his sister and brother-in-law, he said, “I
came to you as an enemy of Islam; I go from you as a friend of Islam. I had
buckled this sword to slay the Prophet of Islam; I now go to him to offer him
allegiance.”
Fatima and Saeed
cried, “Allah o-Akbar.”
Allama Iqbal has
dramatized the episode in his poem “Secrets of the Self.” He has urged Muslim
women to be like the sister of Umar. He says:
“O Muslim women;
Out of the
evening create a new dazzling morn.
To the true
lovers of God,
Recite the Holy
Qur’an
And
enthusiastically translate
Its spirit into
action
Don’t you know
that such a recitation
Changed Umar’s
fate altogether.”
“O Khabbab,” said
‘Umar, “where will Muhammad be now,
that I may go to him and enter Islam?” Khabbab told him that he was at the
house of Arqam near the Safa Gate with many of his Companions. ‘Umar buckled
his sword again and went to Safa, knocked at the door of the house, and said
who he was. They had been warned by Nu’aym so that his coming was not
unexpected, but his softened voice struck them. One of the Companions went to
the door and looked through a chink and came back in some dismay. “O Prophet,”
he said, “it is indeed ‘Umar, and he is with his sword.” “Let him come in,”
said Hamzah. “If he hath come with good intent, we will give him a wealth of
good; and if his intent is evil, we will slay him with his sword.” The Prophet
agreed that he should be admitted, and, advancing to meet him, he seized him by
the belt and pulled him into the middle of the room, saying: “What hath brought
thee here, O son of Khattab? I cannot see thee desisting until God sends down
some calamity upon thee.” “O Prophet,” said ‘Umar, “I have come to thee that I
may declare my faith in God, and in His Messenger and in what he hath brought
from God.” “ is Most Great),” said the Prophet, in such a way that every man
and woman in the house knew that ‘Umar had entered Islam, and they all rejoiced.
That day even
Gabriel congratulated the Prophet on the conversion of Umar. Gabriel said: “O
Prophet of God, the dwellers in Heaven are rejoicing at the conversion of Umar
and offer you their congratulations.” With the pride of a Muslim, Umar visited
various parts of Makkah to announce his conversion. He first went to the house
of his maternal uncle Abu Jahl. He knocked at the door.
“Who comes” asked
Abu Jahl.
“It’s Umar,” said
Umar.
Abu Jahl opened
the door and said, “Welcome, nephew.”
Umar said, “Uncle,
do you know I have become a Muslim.”
Abu Jahl retorted
sternly, “Do not talk like that. I know that a man like you can never become a
Muslim”.
Umar insisted,
“No, uncle, it is a fact that I have become a Muslim.”
Abu Jahl said,
“If what you say is true, then be damned.” Saying this, Abu Jahl shut the door
in the face of Umar. After that, Umar went to see some other Quraysh chiefs. He
told them of his conversion to Islam. Like Abu Jahl, they damned him and shut
the doors of their houses against him.
Umar then
proceeded to the Ka’bah. There he met Jamil bin Ma’mar al-Jamahi who enjoyed a
reputation for being the swiftest disseminator of news in Makkah. Umar told him
that he had accepted Islam. Jamil rose from his feet and cried at the top of
his voice: “O ye Quraysh know that Umar bin al Khattab has been converted to
Islam and apostatized from the faith of his forefathers.”
On hearing this
news, some Quraysh youth gathered at Ka’bah. Umar said, “What Jamil said is not
correct. I have not apostatized: I have seen the truth and accepted Islam”.
Thereupon the Quraysh youth rushed to Umar. A Shaikh dressed in Yemeni robes,
Al-Aas bin Wail passed that way and enquired what the matter was. The Quraysh
said that Umar had apostatized, and they wanted to punish him for straying from
the faith of his forefathers. The Shaikh said, “A man should be free to choose
whatever religion he likes. Why beat him for that?” Abu Jahl also happened to
come that way. Seeing the Quraysh, he said, “I offer protection to my nephew.”
Umar said, “Uncle, I do not need your protection. For me, the protection of God
and the Prophet is enough”.
Umar then went to
the Prophet and told him that he had publicly announced his conversion. Earlier,
those who converted to Islam kept their decision secret for fear of the
oppression of the Quraysh. They also prayed in secret. Umar submitted to the
Prophet:
“O Prophet, are we not in the truth?”
The Prophet said, “Why not? We are verily in
the truth”.
“Then why should
we not pray in public? Has not the time come for us to declare our faith
publicly?” said Umar. Umar tried to convince the Prophet that the truth of
Islam should become public. The Prophet agreed with Umar.
The following day
all the Muslims emerged from the house of Arqam and proceeded to the Ka’bah, in
two lines, one led by Umar and the other by Hamzah. At the Ka’bah the Muslims
prayed openly. The Quraysh watched the Muslims pray and said, “Verily, by the
conversion of Umar to Islam, the Muslims have taken revenge against Quraysh.”
While the Makkah elite had previously persecuted the Muslims for their beliefs,
the early Muslims could now worship at the Ka’bah and partake in their
religious rituals without fear, as Umar was now one of the Muslims.
The Prophet
titled Umar “Al-Faruq” (“the one who distinguishes between right and wrong”).
If anyone was known for bringing strength to the Ummah, it was Umar.
When the Muslims were making hijra (migration) from Makkah to Madīnah,
all but ‘Umar would perform it secretly for fear of oppression. Ali said, “I do
not know of anyone who did not emigrate in secret except for Umar ibn
al-Khattab; because when he wanted to emigrate, he strapped on his sword, put
his bow over his shoulder, carried his arrows in his hand, and came to the Ka’bah
where the nobles of Quraysh were in its courtyard. He strongly performed seven
circumambulations and then prayed two raka’as at the Station (of
Ibrahim). Then he approached their circle one step at a time and said, ‘Many
faces can be deformed. Whoever wishes to bereave his mother, orphan his
children, and widow his wife, then let him meet me behind this valley.’?” Ali
said, “Not one of them followed him except some weak people whom he guided and
then he went his way.
Umar’s Nomination
Following the death
of the prophet in 632, a period of great unrest stirred in the Islamic world.
Muhammad’s place was now occupied by caliphs (literally: substitutes) who were
considered the prophet’s heirs. This period is characterized by bloody warfare
that brought about the murder of three of the first four caliphs.
Since Muhammad
neither produced an heir nor set rules for appointing one, his authority was
passed on to four men considered the most righteous of Muslims, who were close
to the prophet and shared family ties with him. These continued to rule as
caliphs from Medina and were the Muslim people's spiritual, political and
military leaders. The first caliph was Abu Bakr, a close friend of Muhammad and
the father of `Aisha, the favorite of the prophet’s nine wives. Abu Bakr wanted
to ensure that no differences should divide Muslims after his death.
As his sickness
grew, Abu Bakr seriously considered identifying his successor. After careful
thought, he chose to nominate Umar. He put his proposal before the leading
Companions. Most of them appreciated and endorsed the
During a fragmentary
moment of dissent by weak opponents, Ali said he would acknowledge no other
Caliph save Umar. Abu Bakr was much impressed with their selflessness of Ali
for not pressing his claim and for putting the interests of the Muslim
community above personal interests. Turning to Ali, Abu Bakr said:
“You are indeed a prince in the most exalted
sense of the term, for others are mere men.”
On 22 August,
Caliph Abu Bakr died. On the same day, Umar assumed the office of the caliphate.
After taking office as the Caliph, Umar I (ruled 634–644) addressed the Muslims
in his Inaugural address:”O ye
faithful! Abu Bakr is no more amongst us. He has the satisfaction that he has
successfully piloted the ship of the Muslim state to safety after negotiating
the stormy sea. He successfully waged the apostasy wars, and thanks to him,
Islam is now supreme in Arabia. After Abu Bakr, the mantle of the caliphate has
fallen on my shoulders. I swear before God that I never coveted this office. I
wished that it would have devolved into some other person more worthy than me.
But now that in the national interest, the responsibility for leading the
Muslims has come to vest in me, I assure you that I will not run away from my
post and will make an earnest effort to discharge the onerous duties of the
office to the best of my capacity by the injunctions of Islam. Allah has
examined me from you and you from me. In performing my duties, I will seek
guidance from the Holy Book and follow the examples the Holy Prophet and Abu
Bakr set. In this task, I seek your assistance. If I follow the right path, follow
me. Correct me if I deviate from the right direction so we are not led astray.”
Umar believed
that the true traits of a great leader must be: he is firm but not overbearing;
he is soft but not weak; he is generous but not extravagant and he is thrifty but
not miserly.Umar was humble without being weak. He combined two opposing
character traits, making him unique among the men around Prophet Muhammad.
-----
Moin Qazi is the author of the bestselling
book, Village Diary of a Heretic Banker. He has worked in the development
finance sector for almost four decades.
First Part of the
Article: Umar
Al Farooq - The Great Caliph - Part One: Timeline Of The Life Of Caliph Umar
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/umar-farooq-caliph-part-two-biography/d/128277
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