In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Mawaddah Association
presents:
The Ten Promised Paradise:
'Umar ibn al-Khattab,
may Allah be pleased with him.
"Loving the Companions and the Prophet's kin is an established Sunnah,
with which I shall meet my Lord when He resurrects me."
"Loving the Companions and the Prophet's kin is an established Sunnah..."
This is the city of the Prophet,
the capital of the Islamic state
and the seat of the Rightly Guided Caliphate.
Delegations journeyed to it from everywhere;
its day was filled with vibrant activity,
and its night with remembrance of Allah and serene peace.
One evening,
a caravan of merchants arrived in Medina,
camping at the open prayer area.
'Umar said to 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf,
may Allah be pleased with them both:
"Shall we guard them tonight?"
He replied, "Yes."
So they spent the night guarding them and praying.
Then 'Umar heard the crying of an infant,
so he headed toward the sound
and said to the mother:
"Fear Allah Almighty,
and take good care of your child."
Then he returned to his post.
Soon he heard the child crying again,
so he returned to the mother
and said the same to her,
then went back to his post.
Toward the end of the night,
he heard the infant crying once more.
He came to the mother and said:
"Woe to you! What an uncaring mother you are!
Why has your child had no rest from crying all night?"
She replied:
"O servant of Allah,
I am trying to distract him from nursing,
but he refuses."
He asked, "And why is that?"
She said:
"Because 'Umar only allocates a stipend to weaned children."
He asked:
"How old is this son of yours?"
She said, "Such and such months old."
He said:
"Woe to you!
Do not rush him into weaning."
When he led the morning prayer,
the people could barely hear his recitation because of his weeping.
He said:
"Woe to 'Umar!
How many children of the Muslims has he destroyed!"
Then he commanded his caller to announce:
"Do not rush your infants into weaning,
for we shall allocate a stipend for every child born in Islam."
And he dispatched this decree across all provinces.
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, assumed the caliphate
and governed with the finest conduct,
claiming nothing of its wealth for himself or his clan.
He said to the people:
"I regard my position regarding Allah's wealth
as that of an orphan's guardian:
if I am self-sufficient, I abstain;
and if I am in need, I take only what is just and reasonable."
The Caliph 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him,
despite shouldering the heavy burdens of the caliphate and governance,
would personally look after the widows of Medina,
drawing water for them by night
and attending to their needs.
On one occasion,
Talhah saw him enter a woman's house at night.
So Talhah entered upon her the next day,
only to find an elderly, blind, and paralyzed woman.
He asked her, "What does that man do here with you?"
Not knowing his identity, she replied:
"This man has been looking after me for such and such a time;
he brings me what benefits me and removes harm and filth from me."
Talhah said, reproaching himself:
"May your mother be bereaved of you, O Talhah!
Are you seeking out 'Umar's faults?"
And on another unforgettable night in history,
the Caliph 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him,
went out patrolling in the dead of night as was his habit,
accompanied by his servant Aslam.
From afar, they noticed a lit fire.
'Umar said:
"O Aslam,
I see travelers over there
who have been halted by the night and the cold.
Let us go."
Aslam said:
"We set out jogging until we approached them,
and found a woman with young children,
a pot set over a fire,
and children crying from hunger."
'Umar said:
"Peace be upon you, O people of the light!"
—avoiding saying, "O people of the fire!"
She replied, "And upon you be peace."
He asked, "May I come closer?"
She said, "Approach with good, or leave us be."
He came near and asked:
"What is the matter with you?"
She said, "The night and the cold have halted us."
He asked, "And why are these children crying?"
She said, "Hunger."
He asked, "And what is in this pot?"
She said, "Water with which I quiet them until they fall asleep.
Allah will judge between us and 'Umar!"
He said, "May Allah have mercy on you!
How could 'Umar know about your plight?"
She said, "He assumes authority over us and then neglects us!"
Aslam recounted: 'Umar turned to me
and said, "Let us go!"
We hurried until we reached the flour storehouse.
He brought out a sack of flour and a vessel of fat,
then said, "Load it onto me."
I said, "I will carry it for you."
He said:
"Will you carry my burden on the Day of Resurrection?
May you have no mother!"
So I loaded it onto him,
and he set off, with me jogging alongside him, back to her.
He placed it down beside her,
took out some of the flour,
and began saying to her:
"Sprinkle it for me while I stir it for you."
He began blowing beneath the pot and stirring it.
Aslam said:
"I saw smoke coming out through his beard
until he had cooked the meal for them."
Then he said, "Bring me a dish."
She brought a platter, and he poured it into it,
then began saying to her:
"Feed them while I spread it out for them,"
meaning he spread it to cool down.
He continued until they ate their fill,
leaving the remainder of the food with her.
He stood up, and I stood up with him,
while she began saying:
"May Allah reward you with good!
You are more worthy of this office than the Commander of the Believers, 'Umar!"
He said, "Speak good words.
When you come to the Commander of the Believers,
you will find me there, if Allah wills."
Then he moved a short distance away from her
and sat watching her children.
I said, "You have other matters to attend to,"
but he did not speak to me
until I saw the children playfully wrestling,
and then they fell peacefully asleep.
He said:
"O Aslam,
hunger had kept them awake and made them weep,
and I hated to leave before seeing them laughing.
Now that they have laughed, my heart is at ease."
That pastoral care of 'Umar's extended
to encompass even animals.
He, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say:
"If a mule were to stumble in Iraq,
I would fear that Allah would question me about it:
'Why did you not pave the road for it, O 'Umar?'"
On the other hand,
'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was unyielding in the truth,
devoted to spreading Islam across all of Allah's lands,
shattering the power of Persia and Rome,
the greatest empires of that era.
He would always say:
"We are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam,
and whenever we seek honor through anything else, Allah will humiliate us."
Thus, Allah humbled the might of Khosrow and Caesar before him,
and their realms submitted to his rule.
Al-Faruq, may Allah be pleased with him, succeeded
during the ten years of his caliphate
in establishing the most formidable state history had ever known.
The Islamic state arose,
stretching from the lands of Persia and the borders of China in the east
to Egypt and North Africa in the west,
and from the Caspian Sea in the north
to Sudan and Yemen in the south.
His caliphate witnessed unforgettable and monumental days in the history of Islam.
Against the Persians,
there were the battles of al-Qadisiyyah, al-Namaraq,
the Bridge, and al-Buwayb,
and the conquest of al-Mada'in, the Persian capital.
Against the Byzantines,
there were the battles of Yarmuk, Baysan, and Marj al-Rum,
and the conquest of Damascus, Homs, and Baalbek.
During his reign, the Muslims also conquered Jerusalem—
that glorious conquest
that will forever remain etched in the memory of the Muslims.
Heraclius, the emperor of the Romans, was astounded
by the successive Muslim conquests
and the collapse of his armies and cities before them.
So he gathered the commanders of his armies and said to them,
"Tell me about these people who are fighting you.
Are they not human beings like you?"
They replied, "Yes, indeed."
He asked, "So, are you greater in number, or are they?"
They said, "Rather, we outnumber them many times over
in every single field of battle."
He said, "Then why on earth are you being defeated?"
Thereupon, an old man among their prominent figures stood up and said,
"Because they stand in prayer by night and fast by day,
they fulfill their covenants,
they enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong,
and they exchange sincere advice and treat one another with justice.
Whereas we drink wine, commit adultery,
engage in the forbidden, breach our covenants,
commit injustice, and encourage what incurs divine displeasure."
Heraclius then said, "You have spoken the truth to me."
Later, the Commander of the Faithful, 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), sent
an army to fight the Persians,
and placed Sariya Ibn Zanim (may Allah be pleased with him) in command over them.
The Persians and the Kurds lay in wait for them with a massive force,
surrounding the Muslim army
until they were on the verge of total destruction.
While they were in that dire state,
and while 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was in Medina,
delivering the Friday sermon to the people on the pulpit,
'Umar suddenly shouted out,
"O Sariya,
the mountain, the mountain!"
"O Sariya,
the mountain, the mountain!"
"O Sariya,
the mountain, the mountain!"
The army heard 'Umar's shout
from thousands of miles away,
so they retreated toward a nearby mountain,
positioning themselves to face the enemy from a single direction.
Thus Allah granted them victory,
and they captured vast amounts of spoils from the enemy.
Among the captured spoils was
a casket filled with precious jewels.
Sariya (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the permission of the Muslims
to single out this casket as a gift for the Commander of the Faithful, 'Umar.
They granted him permission,
so he dispatched a messenger to Medina,
carrying the fifth of the spoils
along with the casket.
'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) took the fifth
and handed it over to the public treasury of the Muslims,
but he refused to accept the casket of jewels,
returning it instead to the Muslim fighters.
The people of Medina asked Sariya's messenger about the victory,
and he informed them.
Then they asked him,
"Did you hear a voice on the day of the battle?"
He replied, "Yes,
we heard a caller saying,
'O Sariya,
the mountain, the mountain!'
We were on the brink of perishing,
so we took refuge by the mountain,
and Allah granted us victory."
When the Muslim delegation arrived in Medina,
bringing the Hurmuzan with them as a captive—
who was one of the military commanders of Chosroes—
they entered upon 'Umar,
who was sleeping in the mosque,
using his hooded cloak as a pillow.
The Hurmuzan kept asking,
"Where is 'Umar?"
They said,
"There he is,"
lowering their voices so as not to awaken him.
The Hurmuzan kept asking,
"Where are his doorkeepers?
And where are his guards?"
They replied,
"He has no doorkeepers and no guards."
The Hurmuzan was utterly astonished.
Hafiz Ibrahim depicted for us
this scene in his famous poem *Al-'Umariyyah*,
saying:
"And it astonished the envoy of Chosroes to see 'Umar
among his subjects, unadorned, though he was their ruler.
For he knew the kings of Persia to be enclosed
behind a wall of soldiers and guards protecting them.
He saw him immersed in deep sleep, and perceived
in him grandeur in its loftiest forms:
Upon the bare soil, beneath the shade of the trees, wrapped
in a cloak worn thin by the passage of time.
Thus, all he had once magnified crumbled in his eyes—
of the Chosroes and the worldly power in their hands.
And he uttered a word of truth that became a proverb,
which generation after generation continues to relate:
'You felt safe when you established justice among them,
and so you slept the tranquil sleep of a peaceful mind.'"
How did the Commander of the Faithful, 'Umar Ibn al-Khattab, manage the administration
of this vast, expansive empire?
And how did his life come to an end (may Allah be pleased with him)?
This will be the focus of our discussion in the next gathering, Allah willing.
In the Eternal Paradise, texts preserve their elevated rank;
they are Talhah, Ibn 'Awf, and al-Zubayr,
along with Abu 'Ubaydah, the two Sa'ds, and the Caliphs.