Re: People Around the Prophet
AL-FAROUQ OMAR IBNUL- KHATTAB Part 1
Before The Grand Event
Yet Omar's life, in his Pre-Islamic days was more or less the same as the lives of the youth about whom we read in the Pre-Islamic poetry. He was fond of drinking, wrestling with his mates in the market places and courting the pretty young ladies.Omar had made his own idol of soft dates.
That was Omar ibnul-Khattab, the man of extraordinary strenght, height, broadshoulderedness thickness of hands and feet; the man who forced the people to listen when he spoke, who always hastened away when he walked, and who usually caused much pain when he struck.
**The Grand Event**
Omar ibnul-Khattab's conversion took place. At that time, he was
a mature man of thirty to thirty-five years of age, though Ibn-Sa'ad's account is that he was twenty-six.One day the Prophet, Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon him, was meeting with his
companions at the House of Al-Arqam.
*Omar was resolved to do, he said to him: "OOmar, I am afraid you are deceiving yourself. Do you think that Banu Hashim, Muhammad's clan would leave you alive once you have killed their son, Muhammad?" And he advised him to start back, hinting that Fatimah bintul-Khattab (Omar's sister) and her husband Sa'id ibn Zayd had already been converted.Omar drew near, and overheard the murmur is low by definition murmur of the reading."OOmar! Don't you think there may be truth in another faith than yours?"Omar was now positive of what he had heard, concerning the conversion of his sister and her husband. Consequently, and in a wild passion, he sprang upon Sa'id
ibn Zayd and gave him a strong blow. His wife rose at once to stop her brother's aggression and protect her husband. But in the struggle, she too received some blows that caused her to bleed.`Omar did as his sister had required, and then, taking the paper and reading it, his face
changed to an expression of regret and sorrow for what he had done to his sister and her husband. *The beauty and majesty of what he had just read shook him to the depth *of his heart and soul, and with the paper still in his hand, he exclaimed in a low voice, as though speaking to him self: "How excellent is this discourse, and how gracious!
How noble is its call, and how generous is its message!" In short, Omar's good side got the better of him. It all happened in a flash of the moment, when Allah willed it to be.Omar was inspired to take his decision on the spot. "Yes'; that is Omar coming to
us; if he is coming for good and aiming whole-heartedly at adopting our faith, that is what we will wish and hope; if otherwise, by the Will of Allah we will easily get rid of him." At the door of the house,Omar asked the Prophet's permission to go in, and the Prophet gave him that permission. With his sword back into its sheath, Omar stepped in and beaded directly for the Prophet who at once caught hold ofOmar's
garb and the sword-belt saying: *"How long, OOmar, will you not refrain from
persecuting, until Allah sends some disaster upon you?" AndOmar replied: "I testify that there is no god but Allah and that you are His Prophet!" Filled with delight the Prophet shouted, "Allahu Akbar! Greater is Allah," and all the Companions repeated *it after him.Omar's conversion to Islam opened a new era for this religion to start its public, fearless pratice in Makkah.The believers no longer concealed their worship within their own dwellings, but with conscious strength and defiant attitudes assembled in companies around Al-Ka'bah, and there, performed their rites of worship openly.In short,Omar's conversion made the Muslim courage rise, and filled Quraish with dread and uneasiness. This matter had been very decisively settled when `Omar asked the Prophet, Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon him, one day after his conversion:
*"Aren't we following the Truth, O Prophet, whether we die or live?" And the Prophet *answered, *"Yes, by Him in Whose hand is my soul O Omar, you are following the Truth whether you die or live." "So why," saidOmar earnestly "Do we still meet in secret? By Him Who has sent you with the Truth, you shall call in public." The Prophet's silence meant his approval of what Omar had suggested. Soon the believers went out, led by the Prophet, in two rows, the first being headed by Hamzah, and the second byOmar. All headed for Al-Ka'bah, and there, performed the circumambulation and said the prayers, with the leaders of Quraish watching them without daring to utter a single word, or make a motion to wards these two rows headed by Hamzah and Omar. The conversion ofOmar to Islam reduced the power
of Quraish significantly in that `Omar brought with him to the new Faith the tribal loyalties with which he had fought Islam earlier.
To be continued