HAZRAT UMAR , as described in book by Reynold Nicolson , (Later was one of the teachers of Ilama Iqbal)
We may dwell for a little on the noble figure of Umar, who was regarded by good Moslems in after times as an embodiment of all the virtues which a Caliph ought to possess. Probably his character has been idealised, but in any case the anecdotes related of him give an admirable picture of the man and his age. Here are a few, taken almost at random from the pages of Ṭabar.
One said: "I saw Umar coming to the Festival. He walked with bare feet, using both hands (for he was ambidextrous) to draw round him a red embroidered cloth. He towered above the people, as though he were on horseback.". A client of (the Caliph) Uthmn b. Affn relates that he mounted behind his patron and they rode together to the enclosure for the beasts which were delivered in payment of the poor-tax. It was an His simple manners. exceedingly hot day and the simoom was blowing fiercely. They saw a man clad only in a loin-cloth and a short cloak (rid), in which he had wrapped his head, driving the camels into the enclosure. Uthmn said to his companion, "Who is this, think you?" When they came up to him, behold, it was Umar b. al-Khaṭṭb. "By God," said Uthmn, "this is the strong, the trusty."
Umar used to go round the markets and recite the Koran and judge between disputants wherever he found them.When Kabu l-Aḥbr, a well-known Rabbin of Medna, asked how he could obtain access to the Commander of the Faithful, he received this answer: "There is no door nor curtain to be passed; he performs the rites of prayer, then he takes his seat, and any one that wishes may speak to him.".Umar said in one of his public orations, "By Him who sent Muḥammad with the truth, were a single camel to die His sense of personal responsibility. of neglect on the bank of the Euphrates, I should fear lest God should call the family of al-Khaṭṭb" (meaning himself) "to account therefor."
"If I live," he is reported to have said on another occasion, "please God, I will assuredly spend a whole year in travelling among my subjects, for I know they have wants which are cut short ere they reach my ears: the governors do not bring the wants of the people before me, while the people themselves do not attain to me. So I will journey to Syria and remain there two months, then to Mesopotamia and remain there two months, then to Egypt and remain there two months, then to Baḥrayn and remain there two months, then to Kfa and remain there two months, then to Baṣra and remain there two months; and by God, it will be a year well spent!"
One night he came to the house of Abdu l-Raḥmn b. Awf and knocked at the door, which was opened by Abdu l-Raḥmn's wife. "Do not enter," said she, "until I go back and sit in my place;" so he waited. Then she bade him come in, and on his asking, "Have you anything in the house?" she fetched him some food. Meanwhile Abdu l-Raḥmn was standing by, engaged in prayer. "Be quick, man!" cried Umar. Abdu l-Raḥmn immediately pronounced the final salaam, and turning to the Caliph said: "O Commander of the Faithful, what has brought you here at this hour?" Umar replied: "A party of travellers who alighted in the neighbourhood of the market: I was afraid that the thieves The Caliph as a policeman. of Medna might fall upon them. Let us go and keep watch." So he set off with Abdu l-Raḥmn, and when they reached the market-place they seated themselves on some high ground and began to converse. Presently they descried, far away, the light of a lamp. "Have not I forbidden lamps after bedtime?" exclaimed the Caliph. They went to the spot and found a company drinking wine. "Begone," said Umar to Abdu l-Raḥmn; "I know him." Next morning he sent for the culprit and said, addressing him by name, "Last night you were drinking wine with your friends." "O Commander of the Faithful, how didyou ascertain that?" "I saw it with my own eyes." "Has not God forbidden you to play the spy?" Umar made no answer and pardoned his offence.
When Umar ascended the pulpit for the purpose of warning the people that they must not do something, he gathered his family and said to them: "I have forbidden Instructions to his governors. the people to do so-and-so. Now, the people look at you as birds look at flesh, and I swear by God that if I find any one of you doing this thing, I will double the penalty against him."
Whenever he appointed a governor he used to draw up in writing a certificate of investiture, which he caused to be witnessed by some of the His strictness towards his own family. Emigrants or Helpers. It contained the following instructions: That he must not ride on horseback, nor eat white bread, nor wear fine clothes, nor set up a door between himself and those who had aught to ask of him.
It was Umar's custom to go forth with his governors, on their appointment, to bid them farewell. "I have not appointed you," he would say, "over the people of Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!) that you may drag them by their hair and scourge their skins, but in order that you may lead them in prayer and judge between them with right and divide (the public money) amongst them with equity. I have not made you lords of their skin and hair. Do not flog the Arabs lest you humiliate them, and do not keep them long on foreign service lest you tempt them to sedition, and do not neglect them lest you render them desperate. Confine yourselves to the Koran, write few Traditions of Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!), and I am your ally." He used to permit retaliation against his governors. On receiving a complaint about any one of them he confronted him with the accuser, and punished him if his guilt were proved.
It was Umar who first made a Register (Dwn) of the The Register of Umar. Arabs in Islam and entered them therein according to their tribes and assigned to them their stipends. The following account of its institution is extracted from the charming history entitled al-Fakhr:
In the fifteenth year of the Hijra (636 a.d.) Umar, who was then Caliph, seeing that the conquests proceeded without interruptionand that the treasures of the Persian monarchs had been taken as spoil, and that load after load was being accumulated of gold and silver and precious jewels and splendid raiment, resolved to enrich the Moslems by distributing all this wealth amongst them; but he did not know how he should manage it. Now there was a Persian satrap (marzubn) at Medna who, when he saw Umar's bewilderment, said to him, "O Commander of the Faithful, the Persian kings have a thing they call a Dwn, in which is kept the whole of their revenues and expenditures without exception; and therein those who receive stipends are arranged in classes, so that no confusion occurs." Umar's attention was aroused. He bade the satrap describe it, and on comprehending its nature, he drew up the registers and assigned the stipends, appointing a specified allowance for every Moslem; and he allotted fixed sums to the wives of the Apostle (on whom be God's blessing and peace!) and to his concubines and next-of-kin, until he exhausted the money in hand. He did not lay up a store in the treasury. Some one came to him and said: "O Commander of the Faithful, you should have left something to provide for contingencies." Umar rebuked him, saying, "The devil has put these words into your mouth. May God preserve me from their mischief! for it were a temptation to my successors. Come what may, I will provide naught except obedience to God and His Apostle. That is our provision, whereby we have gained that which we have gained." Then, in respect of the stipends, he deemed it right that precedence should be according to priority of conversion to Islam and of service rendered to the Apostle on his fields of battle.
Affinity to Muḥammad was also considered. "By God," exclaimed Umar, "we have not won superiority in this world, The aristocracy of Islam. nor do we hope for recompense for our works from God hereafter, save through Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!). He is our title to nobility, his tribe are the noblest of the Arabs, and after them those are the nobler that are nearer to him in blood. Truly, the Arabs are ennobled by God's Apostle. Peradventure some of them have many ancestors in common with him, and we ourselves are only removed by a few forbears from his line of descent, in which we accompany him back to Adam. Notwithstanding "'Tis only noble to be good." this, if the foreigners bring good works and we bring none, by God, they are nearer to Muḥammad on the day of Resurrection than we. Therefore let no man regard affinity, but let him work for that which is in God's hands to bestow. He that is retarded by his works will not be sped by his lineage."
It may be said of Umar, not less appropriately than of Cromwell, that he
"cast the kingdoms old Into another mould;"
and he too justified the poet's maxim
"The same arts that did gain A power, must it maintain."
Under the system which he organised Arabia, purged of infidels, became a vast recruiting-ground for the standing armies of Islam: the Arabs in the conquered territories formed an exclusive military class, living in great camps and supported by revenues derived from the non-Muḥammadan population. Out of such camps arose two cities destined to make their Foundation of Baṣra and Kfa (638 a.d.). mark in literary historyBaṣra (Bassora) on the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates, and Kfa, which was founded about the same time on the western branch of the latter stream, not far from Ḥra.
Umar was murdered by a Persian slave named Frz while leading the prayers in the Great Mosque. With Death of Umar (644 a.d.). his death the military theocracy and the palmy days of the Patriarchal Caliphate draw to a close. The broad lines of his character appear in the anecdotes translated above, though many details might be added to complete the picture. Simple and frugal; doing his duty without fear or favour; energetic even to harshness, yet capable of tenderness towards the weak; a severe judge of others and especially of himself, he was a born ruler and every inch a man. Looking back onthe turmoils which followed his death one is inclined to agree with the opinion of a saintly doctor who said, five centuries afterwards, that "the good fortune of Islam was shrouded in the grave-clothes of Umar b. al-Khaṭṭb."
We may dwell for a little on the noble figure of Umar, who was regarded by good Moslems in after times as an embodiment of all the virtues which a Caliph ought to possess. Probably his character has been idealised, but in any case the anecdotes related of him give an admirable picture of the man and his age. Here are a few, taken almost at random from the pages of Ṭabar.
One said: "I saw Umar coming to the Festival. He walked with bare feet, using both hands (for he was ambidextrous) to draw round him a red embroidered cloth. He towered above the people, as though he were on horseback.". A client of (the Caliph) Uthmn b. Affn relates that he mounted behind his patron and they rode together to the enclosure for the beasts which were delivered in payment of the poor-tax. It was an His simple manners. exceedingly hot day and the simoom was blowing fiercely. They saw a man clad only in a loin-cloth and a short cloak (rid), in which he had wrapped his head, driving the camels into the enclosure. Uthmn said to his companion, "Who is this, think you?" When they came up to him, behold, it was Umar b. al-Khaṭṭb. "By God," said Uthmn, "this is the strong, the trusty."
Umar used to go round the markets and recite the Koran and judge between disputants wherever he found them.When Kabu l-Aḥbr, a well-known Rabbin of Medna, asked how he could obtain access to the Commander of the Faithful, he received this answer: "There is no door nor curtain to be passed; he performs the rites of prayer, then he takes his seat, and any one that wishes may speak to him.".Umar said in one of his public orations, "By Him who sent Muḥammad with the truth, were a single camel to die His sense of personal responsibility. of neglect on the bank of the Euphrates, I should fear lest God should call the family of al-Khaṭṭb" (meaning himself) "to account therefor."
"If I live," he is reported to have said on another occasion, "please God, I will assuredly spend a whole year in travelling among my subjects, for I know they have wants which are cut short ere they reach my ears: the governors do not bring the wants of the people before me, while the people themselves do not attain to me. So I will journey to Syria and remain there two months, then to Mesopotamia and remain there two months, then to Egypt and remain there two months, then to Baḥrayn and remain there two months, then to Kfa and remain there two months, then to Baṣra and remain there two months; and by God, it will be a year well spent!"
One night he came to the house of Abdu l-Raḥmn b. Awf and knocked at the door, which was opened by Abdu l-Raḥmn's wife. "Do not enter," said she, "until I go back and sit in my place;" so he waited. Then she bade him come in, and on his asking, "Have you anything in the house?" she fetched him some food. Meanwhile Abdu l-Raḥmn was standing by, engaged in prayer. "Be quick, man!" cried Umar. Abdu l-Raḥmn immediately pronounced the final salaam, and turning to the Caliph said: "O Commander of the Faithful, what has brought you here at this hour?" Umar replied: "A party of travellers who alighted in the neighbourhood of the market: I was afraid that the thieves The Caliph as a policeman. of Medna might fall upon them. Let us go and keep watch." So he set off with Abdu l-Raḥmn, and when they reached the market-place they seated themselves on some high ground and began to converse. Presently they descried, far away, the light of a lamp. "Have not I forbidden lamps after bedtime?" exclaimed the Caliph. They went to the spot and found a company drinking wine. "Begone," said Umar to Abdu l-Raḥmn; "I know him." Next morning he sent for the culprit and said, addressing him by name, "Last night you were drinking wine with your friends." "O Commander of the Faithful, how didyou ascertain that?" "I saw it with my own eyes." "Has not God forbidden you to play the spy?" Umar made no answer and pardoned his offence.
When Umar ascended the pulpit for the purpose of warning the people that they must not do something, he gathered his family and said to them: "I have forbidden Instructions to his governors. the people to do so-and-so. Now, the people look at you as birds look at flesh, and I swear by God that if I find any one of you doing this thing, I will double the penalty against him."
Whenever he appointed a governor he used to draw up in writing a certificate of investiture, which he caused to be witnessed by some of the His strictness towards his own family. Emigrants or Helpers. It contained the following instructions: That he must not ride on horseback, nor eat white bread, nor wear fine clothes, nor set up a door between himself and those who had aught to ask of him.
It was Umar's custom to go forth with his governors, on their appointment, to bid them farewell. "I have not appointed you," he would say, "over the people of Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!) that you may drag them by their hair and scourge their skins, but in order that you may lead them in prayer and judge between them with right and divide (the public money) amongst them with equity. I have not made you lords of their skin and hair. Do not flog the Arabs lest you humiliate them, and do not keep them long on foreign service lest you tempt them to sedition, and do not neglect them lest you render them desperate. Confine yourselves to the Koran, write few Traditions of Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!), and I am your ally." He used to permit retaliation against his governors. On receiving a complaint about any one of them he confronted him with the accuser, and punished him if his guilt were proved.
It was Umar who first made a Register (Dwn) of the The Register of Umar. Arabs in Islam and entered them therein according to their tribes and assigned to them their stipends. The following account of its institution is extracted from the charming history entitled al-Fakhr:
In the fifteenth year of the Hijra (636 a.d.) Umar, who was then Caliph, seeing that the conquests proceeded without interruptionand that the treasures of the Persian monarchs had been taken as spoil, and that load after load was being accumulated of gold and silver and precious jewels and splendid raiment, resolved to enrich the Moslems by distributing all this wealth amongst them; but he did not know how he should manage it. Now there was a Persian satrap (marzubn) at Medna who, when he saw Umar's bewilderment, said to him, "O Commander of the Faithful, the Persian kings have a thing they call a Dwn, in which is kept the whole of their revenues and expenditures without exception; and therein those who receive stipends are arranged in classes, so that no confusion occurs." Umar's attention was aroused. He bade the satrap describe it, and on comprehending its nature, he drew up the registers and assigned the stipends, appointing a specified allowance for every Moslem; and he allotted fixed sums to the wives of the Apostle (on whom be God's blessing and peace!) and to his concubines and next-of-kin, until he exhausted the money in hand. He did not lay up a store in the treasury. Some one came to him and said: "O Commander of the Faithful, you should have left something to provide for contingencies." Umar rebuked him, saying, "The devil has put these words into your mouth. May God preserve me from their mischief! for it were a temptation to my successors. Come what may, I will provide naught except obedience to God and His Apostle. That is our provision, whereby we have gained that which we have gained." Then, in respect of the stipends, he deemed it right that precedence should be according to priority of conversion to Islam and of service rendered to the Apostle on his fields of battle.
Affinity to Muḥammad was also considered. "By God," exclaimed Umar, "we have not won superiority in this world, The aristocracy of Islam. nor do we hope for recompense for our works from God hereafter, save through Muḥammad (God bless him and grant him peace!). He is our title to nobility, his tribe are the noblest of the Arabs, and after them those are the nobler that are nearer to him in blood. Truly, the Arabs are ennobled by God's Apostle. Peradventure some of them have many ancestors in common with him, and we ourselves are only removed by a few forbears from his line of descent, in which we accompany him back to Adam. Notwithstanding "'Tis only noble to be good." this, if the foreigners bring good works and we bring none, by God, they are nearer to Muḥammad on the day of Resurrection than we. Therefore let no man regard affinity, but let him work for that which is in God's hands to bestow. He that is retarded by his works will not be sped by his lineage."
It may be said of Umar, not less appropriately than of Cromwell, that he
"cast the kingdoms old Into another mould;"
and he too justified the poet's maxim
"The same arts that did gain A power, must it maintain."
Under the system which he organised Arabia, purged of infidels, became a vast recruiting-ground for the standing armies of Islam: the Arabs in the conquered territories formed an exclusive military class, living in great camps and supported by revenues derived from the non-Muḥammadan population. Out of such camps arose two cities destined to make their Foundation of Baṣra and Kfa (638 a.d.). mark in literary historyBaṣra (Bassora) on the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates, and Kfa, which was founded about the same time on the western branch of the latter stream, not far from Ḥra.
Umar was murdered by a Persian slave named Frz while leading the prayers in the Great Mosque. With Death of Umar (644 a.d.). his death the military theocracy and the palmy days of the Patriarchal Caliphate draw to a close. The broad lines of his character appear in the anecdotes translated above, though many details might be added to complete the picture. Simple and frugal; doing his duty without fear or favour; energetic even to harshness, yet capable of tenderness towards the weak; a severe judge of others and especially of himself, he was a born ruler and every inch a man. Looking back onthe turmoils which followed his death one is inclined to agree with the opinion of a saintly doctor who said, five centuries afterwards, that "the good fortune of Islam was shrouded in the grave-clothes of Umar b. al-Khaṭṭb."
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