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Life of the Prophet (seerah)

Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra) - The Convert Who Changed The World | The Firsts

June 24, 2021Dr. Omar Suleiman

The most consequential conversion in the history of Islam is undoubtedly that of Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra). His quest for the truth, and willingness to do anything for it, earned him the title of "Al-Farooq" by the Prophet ﷺ himself.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We finally start with Umar bin al-Khattab. Some people were starting to think it was a conspiracy. Why are they waiting so long to get to Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu? But again to set the premise of the series, we have been talking about the first, meaning those who embraced Islam by order. Speaking about the struggle as it was unfolding and the capacity of these companions in regards to their embracing Islam. And of course with Umar bin al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, his Islam completely changes the course of history forever. So this is the most consequential conversion to Islam in the history of Islam after the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam himself receiving revelation. The consequences of his shahada changed the entire course. A page is turned in the seerah books of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and we understand something new about this community that laid the foundation for us to benefit from until today. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu of course is the last of the four khulafa' rashideen in terms of the order of embracing Islam and the last of the prominence muhajireen, the prominent people of Mecca, prominent in regards to the seerah books, the names that are well known to us. When you look at the order of people embracing Islam, Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is the last of the group of muhajireen as we know them, who embraces Islam and who changes the way that Islam functions in the world as a community of the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam. And of course he is very beloved for good reason. And I'll say this subhanAllah that the love that people have for Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, it reminds me first and foremost of that hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam that if Allah loves someone, he calls Jibreel alayhi salam and he says, Ya Jibreel inni uhibbu fulan, O Jibreel I love this person, so love this person. So Jibreel alayhi salam loves this person. And by the way, we'll see that in the initial conversion of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Jibreel loves the person and Jibreel alayhi salam calls out to ahl al-samaa, to the inhabitants of the heavens and says that Allah loves this person, so love this person. So all of the inhabitants of the heavens love that person as well. And then Allah subhanAllah allows that to translate into the love of the righteous for that person on earth. The love that the Muslims have for Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is divine. It is something that Allah has put in our hearts that when we hear his name, there's a sense of pride, a sense of attachment. When you're reading any story of the seerah, as soon as you hear his name come in, you know that things are about to get interesting, right? You know that this part of the story is going to get interesting and you're ready to hear what's next. You read about the history of Umar radiyaAllahu anhu, his khilafah, the system that he established, the justice of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, and it is nothing but love that comes in the hearts of the Muslims. So let's talk about him and I know that many of us have heard the story of his conversion and I want to emphasize from the start inshaAllah ta'ala that if you go back and look at some of the biographies that we covered of people that maybe were not as well known to you, we will start to connect a few more dots inshaAllah and we'll talk about some points of context that aren't typically mentioned in a lecture about the conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So there will be tidbits that I want you to hang on to and hopefully this will force you
to go back and watch some of the lectures that it may have been some time, you know, of people that we cover and their stories are deeply interconnected with Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So his name is Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl ibn Abdul Uzza and right away when you hear Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl, we covered someone early on in the series whose name is connected to that. Who do you hear? Zayd ibn Amir ibn Nufayl. One of the first people that we covered in this series was Zayd ibn Amir ibn Nufayl radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, the man who the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said when we come on the Day of Judgment, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those lined up behind our Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and we see the nations lined up behind their Prophets, this man will be standing alone because he believed and he acted upon his belief before the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam received revelation and he was persecuted for that. So basically he had the journey of a Sahabi without ever getting to be a real Sahabi because he did not live to see the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam receive revelation. This is the cousin of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, his first cousin in fact and as we know his greatest persecutor was the father of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, al-Khattab. So al-Khattab was the one that would beat Zayd when Zayd would speak in front of the Kaaba about following the religion of Ibrahim alayhi wa sallam and about the importance of monotheism. Al-Khattab said get this out of here, why? This is distracting Quraysh, this is harming our idols, this is an insult to our culture, it's an insult to our forefathers and he would be the one that would beat Zayd so much that Zayd could no longer bear to come out and live in Mecca. So the father of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is al-Khattab ibn Nufayl, the uncle of Zayd ibn Amir ibn Nufayl.
Now Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is from Banu Adi and that's the father's tribe and Banu Adi is a small tribe, sub-tribe of Quraysh. So they are Qurayshi but they're not one of the large tribes, a very small tribe from Quraysh. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu of course just to describe him physically, what do you think when you hear the name of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu? Strength, big and strong, right? So big that when he would ride on an animal his feet would touch the ground sometimes because of how strong he was, how big he was. So big that when he walked on the road the kids would run away because they would be afraid of him even if he meant no harm. Everything about him represents a Paul Bunyan-like physical stature, right? Someone who was just absolutely huge. So Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu's physical description, extremely tall, very strong, okay? He had a reddish skin color, meaning he was fair-skinned. He had a white color with a reddish hint to it. But then you'll find sometimes he's described as the opposite and they say because in the year of the famine Umar radiyaAllahu anhu abstained from food. And because of his abstaining particularly from meat that he actually changed colors. SubhanAllah you actually find that his color changed in the midst of that period of his life. So he's described as both. He had very big deep set eyes, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So you looked at his eyes and they were very big and they were deep set. They stood out from his facial features. Large hands, large feet, a deep voice. One of the funny narrations I came across is that one time, Imam al-Qurtoobi rahimAllah has a narration that one time there was a barber that was cutting Umar's hair. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu just spoke to tell him something and he fainted because
he got afraid because of how deep the voice of Umar was. So the depth of the voice of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was that you could hear him from far away, far away and his voice would echo from its depth. So he had a deep deep voice, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, the ground under him would tremble, his voice would cause the environment around him to tremble. And this is a you know something that is not looked down upon in the deen. When you look at Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, his strength and this is of course from the beauty of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam is that he put everyone on a track when they became Muslim that fit their strengths and that was for their benefit and for the benefit of the community. He would not try to tame Umar radiyaAllahu anhu when he became Muslim but he directed Umar's energy and his strength towards that which was righteous and that which was good. And there's a narration here from Aisha radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu about the character of the deen in that sense. Aisha radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu one time, our mother Aisha saw a group of men walking very slow you know bent over bad posture like me right just kind of like walking like this and Aisha radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said what's going on with these guys? What is it with them? They said ya um al mu'mineen, they're zuhad, qurra. One narration is zuhad, one says qurra. So they're ascetics, they're people who have abstained from the dunya, they are reciters, qurra meaning they recite at night, they recite all night, they don't sleep at night. So mashAllah they don't eat, they don't drink, they're very weak, they're very pious, they're very humble and Aisha radiyaAllahu anhu's response was la tumitu alayna deenina, don't do this to our religion, don't kill our deen for us, don't bring this type of behavior to our deen and she said rahimAllahu umar, may Allah have mercy on umar, laqad kana umar
sayyidul qurra, he was the master of all those who would recite at night. No one prayed qiyam more than umar, no one was more humble than umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, wakana idha masha asra, when he walked, he walked fast. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, you would not know from his piety and his asceticism, you wouldn't see him walking like why are you walking so slow, you know my back hurts, I've been praying qiyam all night, it's been rough with all the tahajjud, you know my knees hurt from tahajjud. No, umar radiyaAllahu anhu would walk very fast, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And she said, wa idha takallama asma'a, when he spoke he made sure everyone heard him. He didn't have a low voice, he wasn't arrogant, but his voice was confidence, that's who he was radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, that was the character of deen in umar radiyaAllahu anhu, when he spoke, he spoke authoritatively, he was not afraid radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu to project his voice, wa idha dharaba awja, and when he hit, he hit hard. There was no weakness in the punch or the hit of umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Ramadan did not do away with any of that with umar, but now when he walked, he did not walk with personal pride, he walked out of the confidence and for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he spoke, and in one narration when he fed, he fed generously, right, he didn't hold back anything radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu of his wealth when he spent for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we move on. Umar radiyaAllahu anhu's age is significant because when you think of the islam of umar, you think of an older person, right, one of the leaders of quraish in terms of his status, and the reality is that he was in his mid-twenties, okay, so he was about 24 years old when the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam received revelation, even down to 21 years old, and when we're looking at some of these sahaba that embraced islam at 17, 18, 19 years old,
umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was in his early twenties. And umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was a camel herder for his father and a trader as well, so we said he was born in Mecca, and Banu Adi, despite being a small clan, they used to participate in some of the arbitration and some of the reparations when there were issues amongst the different tribes of quraish. His mother, her name was Hantama bint Hisham, and she was from the tribe of Banu Mahzum, which is the tribe of Abu Jahl, the tribe of Khalid radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And this is significant because Hantama was the niece of Abu Jahl, so Abu Jahl was actually umar's uncle, okay, and he would refer to him as such, and Abu Jahl would refer to him as his nephew because of his mother. So he's got his foot in both of these tribes, and Banu Adi, small but powerful, not necessarily influential, respected, they kind of have their space carved out, and then his foot as well in the door when it comes to Banu Mahzum. Now his father was known for one thing and one thing only, which is very significant, harshness. Extremely harsh man, ruthless. He was ruthless with his family, he was ruthless with the strangers, he was ruthless with everybody around him. And this shows up in multiple narrations. First and foremost from Umar bin al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu himself, Said ibn Musayyib radiyaAllahu anhu said that Umar radiyaAllahu anhu used to come to the valley, a valley on the outskirts of Mecca, and he would look out and he would say, la ilaha illa Allah al-azim al-ali al-mu'ti ma sha'a man sha'a. Said la ilaha illa Allah, the most high, exalting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the one who gives to whom he wills, when he wills.
And he said I remember when I used to work in these valleys and herd sheep and camels for my father and for my uncles and for my aunts. And my father, kana fadlan yuta'ibuni idha amiltu wa yadribuni idha qasirt. My father was so rough, he was ruthless. He would exhaust me if I did my work right and he would beat me if I did my work wrong. And he says, you know, in different narrations, he says that my father used to overwork me and he used to be an abusive man with his tongue and with his hands. SubhanAllah, another narration from Abdurrahman bin Hatib, he said that Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu mentioned that he would make me herd the sheep and he would make me gather the firewood. But every time he mentions al-Khattab, he mentions he was an abusive man. So Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu grew up with a hatred of sorts for his father because his father used to beat him severely and he used to beat others as we see. So he was known for his roughness, his harshness, and this was something that he himself experienced first and this was something that Zaid ibn Amr ibn Nufail, of course, experienced as well. Now what we keep on hearing though is that Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu also took from this a sense of humility that I was just someone that used to herd sheep and camels. And so there are so many different narrations of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu reflecting on his time as a sheep herder and as a camel herder. And you know, we take first and foremost that you don't need to be resigned to the weaknesses of your parents or circumstances. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu could have easily been a cruel man for the rest of his life and justified that by saying, what, my father was cruel with me. I grew up in cruel circumstances. Instead we'll see Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu take a particular affinity towards al-adl, towards justice. He did not want to inherit the cruelty of his father in that sense. So when Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would show his anger, especially after Islam, it
was injustice and it was for righteous causes and it did not transgress into dhulm, into oppression. However, when it comes to his being a shepherd, multiple times where Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would call to attention that he used to just be a shepherd to himself and to his society and this is throughout Islam. Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says that one time Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, he stood up on the manbar and he said, call the adhan. This is when he was the khalifa. Now when you call the adhan outside of salah time, what does that indicate? Maybe war, we're under siege, an army has come. It's something extremely important. So there is something that requires us to call the adhan now, call the people to prayer now. So they all gather to hear what Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu has to say. He said, Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulillah. So he started off in the name of Allah and with the praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and salawat on the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. He says, my name is Umar. I used to be called Umair, which is little Umar, and I used to be a barefoot shepherd that would tend to the sheep of my father and of my aunts from Banu Mahzum and they would give me just a handful of dates that would suffice me for the day. Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah. He just gets down. Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, I went to him and I said, did you really just call all the people for this? And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, ya Abdurrahman, I noticed something in myself. I was receiving the amwad, the wealth coming from all over the world because Islam had spread under Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and my nafs, my self, spoke to me and said, look at you. MashaAllah, self-talk, right? You're Amir al-mu'mineen, the leader of the believers. You are this, you are that. So he said, I wanted to teach my nafs a lesson. So this was me talking down my nafs, putting my nafs back in its place. Another narration, Khawla bint Tha'alaba.
Remember we talked about last week, Khawla bint Hakeem versus Khawla bint Tha'alaba. A woman, an elderly woman in the streets of Mecca or Medina at that time, and she calls out to Umar and she says, ya Umair, he's the leader of the Muslims. She says, ya Umair, little Umar, I remember when you used to be barefoot and tending to the sheep and to the shepherds and to the camels as a shepherd in Mecca, in the valleys of Mecca. So fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with those who are now under your care. And Umar radiyaAllahu anhu would break down crying and they said to this old woman, they said, you know, calm down. Why are you doing this to Amir al-Mu'minin? And they're both trying to calm her down and they're telling Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, why are you so moved by this elderly woman? Why don't you just tell her to stop? Why don't you send her away? Why are you so humbled when she speaks? He says, you know who that is? That is the woman who Allah heard from above seven heavens, al-Mujadila, the woman who came pleading to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. If Allah heard her above seven heavens, you want me to not hear her? So he was always humbled by his background, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And one specific thing, and then I'll move on from this inshaAllah ta'ala. He says that he used to tend to the sheep of his aunts from al-Makhzum as well. So it wasn't just his father, but also his aunts from al-Makhzum, which was the tribe of, as we said, Abu Jahl. And of course, a gem of this that the scholars mentioned is that the prophets were shepherds. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that all of the prophets were shepherds and that there are certain leadership qualities that come out of being a shepherd, right, caring for the flock. So Umar radiyaAllahu anhu had that experience as a young man growing up of taking care of the flock. And that is very much needed when you become in charge of a group of people to know how to take care of the flock, because people are very much so like the flock, right? They go with the flow and you have to, you know, care for them and be tender with them and bring them along and make sure that you exhibit the right behavior to keep them together and to protect them from their outside enemies.
So anyway, that is his profession as a young man. Now what he did as he grew up was he started to supplement his income through different ways. One of them is that Umar radiyaAllahu anhu would enter into wrestling competitions. So he used to fight and he would enter into the wrestling competitions of his time and Umar radiyaAllahu anhu would enter into the wrestling competitions of his time. He was known to not lose any type of battle. So he was known for his strength and he would overcome people in fighting and wrestling and he would earn money in that way. Another thing that Umar radiyaAllahu anhu did which is significant is that he learned how to read and write in his teenage years which was very rare amongst Quraysh. You know sometimes you think about Umar radiyaAllahu anhu, you think maybe someone who is brute, who is ignorant, kind of impulsive, doesn't have high intelligence, that's kind of the portrayal right of a person who jumps and no, Umar radiyaAllahu anhu was extremely intelligent. Very, very learned, smart and he was only amongst, they said, 17 people from Quraysh that had embraced Islam that knew how to read. He knew poetry radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and he developed an understanding of the poetry at the time. And guess what, because of just how competitive he was, what did Umar radiyaAllahu anhu do at a young man? He basically entered into the diss battles of his time which means that he would use poetry to insult people and they would insult back and he would basically out poetry you and defeat you in poetry and he'd make money off of that too. So he would out wrestle, he would out poetry you, he knew how to defeat you with his strength and with his speech radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. He just knew how to overcome people in every way. The only thing that he was not so successful at was being a merchant, buying and selling. They said he wasn't the best merchant. He did go out on trade routes, he went to Rome and he went to Persia by the way as a kid.
So he went out and he saw the world radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu in the various trade routes but he wasn't necessarily successful in his trade. So what does he attain amongst Quraysh as well with his skill set? He was known as Ibn al-Jawzi rahimAllah says the Safir of Quraysh, he was the ambassador of Quraysh, he would defend Quraysh against everyone else. How? When there was any type of poetry, when there was any type of competition amongst the tribes, when the outsiders came to Mecca, Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was basically the flag bearer of Quraysh. He would go out and he would boast about Quraysh's superiority over everybody else. Most people would boast about the superiority of their specific tribes. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would defend all of Quraysh and all of Quraysh saw him as their spokesperson to address the outsider or the insider about the superiority of Quraysh. And of course Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu combined both being intelligent and intimidating. Right? So he combined the two things that would be necessary for that role and everybody loved him as a result of that. Now let's continue onwards inshaAllah ta'ala some of the context when we come into Islam. We said that his uncle is Abu Jahl, his mother's tribe is Banu Mahzum and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would also play a role in some of the harassment of the early Muslims. He just really didn't like Islam. He did not like the Prophet's salallahu alayhi wa sallam's message. He did not like what he saw as a disruption to society being together. Now there is something really important here about Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu that distinguishes him from Abu Jahl in this regard. Abu Jahl feared for losing his edge or losing the edge of the tribe. That the tribe would lose some ground, Banu Mahzum would lose some ground to Banu Hashim.
Banu Mahzum being a sub-tribe had to maintain superiority in Mecca. And that's why he didn't want to give the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam any type of room to breathe or to preach. He did not want Banu Hashim to gain leverage over Banu Mahzum. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu did not care about his tribe, he cared about his people as a whole. He cared about society as a whole. And so this is something that might be a little bit hard for some of us to appreciate on a first reading of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu that his objection to Islam actually came from a pretty noble place. It was not ego, it was not well he's the child of this person and I'm the child of that person. It was this person is dividing our families. This person is weakening us as a society because of all the division that's being caused. And because of that our enemies are making a mockery of us, our idols are insulted, our forefathers are insulted. Realize when he used to defend Quraysh he had to defend all of their culture, all of their religious practices, everything. And here Muhammad sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam's message is splitting them apart. So he did not like the disruptiveness of Islam more than anything else. What is this that has come between us as tribes in Mecca and is disrupting us? And that was the source of his persecution, okay, of the Muslims. Which is very different from Abu Jahl who acts from a place of pure ego and that I should be the one in charge and if we had a prophet he should be from Banu Mahzum. And we can never give Banu Hashim any leverage over us and so I'm going to turn all of society against these people and torture them so that my tribe can have superiority. There's a difference between the two motivations in that regard. However, at the end of the day the two biggest people in Mecca from a size perspective were Abu Jahl and Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and they are persecuting the Muslims.
Umar not so much as Abu Jahl but still he is amongst the persecutors. Now before Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu even embraces Islam, from his family we know that his sister Fatima bint al-Khattab embraced Islam. Fatima bint al-Khattab embraced Islam and she was the wife of Sa'eed bin Zayd. May Allah be pleased with them both. Alright, so Fatima precedes him in Islam. We have a feeling that his wife whose name we mentioned last week, anyone remember? Zaynab bint Mad'un. The sister of Uthman bin Mad'un. Zaynab bint Mad'un. We have a feeling that she also embraced Islam prior to Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in secret. So Fatima did not tell Umar radiAllahu anhu that she embraced Islam. Zaynab had she embraced Islam did not tell Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that she embraced Islam. And then there is an older brother of Umar. This is a very interesting man subhanAllah. Zayd bin al-Khattab. Zayd bin al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu was the older brother of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. But his personality, very quiet, very much isolated from society. SubhanAllah sometimes you look at your kids and it's like how are they brother and sister right? They have such different personalities. Zayd was very quiet, not very involved in the affairs of Quraysh. But Islam appealed to him right away and he embraced Islam and he embraced it secretly radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And the only thing we know about Zayd is his embracing Islam and then his death. SubhanAllah nothing in between. Like he embraced Islam, quietly stayed around the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. He is from amongst the first even before Umar radiAllahu anhu. But we can't do a biography about him because there is so little about him. Zayd radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was also very tall like Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And you know someone that could have been very influential in society but did not take that role.
And he surpassed Umar in Islam and he surpassed Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in shahada, in martyrdom. Zayd died in the battle of Yamama against Musaylim al-Kaddhab. He was martyred fighting against Musaylim al-Kaddhab. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who of course fought in that battle alongside Zayd, he came to Zayd at the battlefield and there was a strong scent of musk from the body of Zayd. The wind was blowing and you just smelled the musk from his body, the martyr Zayd. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, RahimakAllah ya Zayd may Allah have mercy upon you O Zayd. Sabaqtani marratain, you beat me twice. Sabaqtani ilal-Islam wa sabaqtani ilal-shahada. You beat me to Islam and then you beat me to martyrdom. SubhanAllah what a man. You know this is Umar's brother. Don't hear much about him in the background but he preceded Umar to Islam and he preceded Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu to shahada. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu when the wind used to blow, he used to say I can still smell the scent of Zayd. Like the wind would remind him of the musk from the body of his brother who died shaheed in the battle of Yamama. So that is his brother, that is his sister that both embraced Islam before him. Now let's talk about his marriages really quick. We mentioned Zayda bint Mad'un who was the mother of Abdullah bint Umar and the mother of Hafsa. May Allah be pleased with them. So an amazing woman to have raised those kids. He also would marry at some point Atika bint Zayd bin Amir bin Nufayr. So he married the daughter of Zayd bin Amir who is also the sister of Sa'eed bin Zayd. He also would marry at some point Um Kursum bint Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Um Kursum, the daughter of Ali bin Abi Talib, the granddaughter of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And he married her because he wanted a connection to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
He wanted to have that shared lineage of Ahlul Bayt with the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam in that regard. And he also married Um Hakim bint Al-Harith radiAllahu ta'ala anhu who was the widow of Ikramah bin Abi Jahl radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Ikramah, of course, the son of Abu Jahl, would become Muslim and would die as a martyr. When he was martyred, Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu married his widow as well. So these are some of the spouses of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu throughout his life. So what's the story of him becoming Muslim? Some of this you've heard, I'm sure some of it you have not, but let's sort of break it down. How Allah was putting Islam in front of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu time and time and time again and how he was different, how he was different. The first narration is from a woman by the name of Um Abdullah bint Abi Hathma. Um Abdullah bint Abi Hathma radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. She was one of the persecuted Muslims. And she was one of those who escaped with her husband to Habasha, to Abyssinia, because of the harshness of the persecution. And Um Abdullah, she describes this incident, she says that we used to be, you know, abused by Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu in society. And he was amongst those who were harshest on us for being Muslim. And then one day, me and my husband, we were getting ready to go to Abyssinia. Amir, my husband, left to go do something, and I was the only one in front of my house and I was getting our luggage ready so that we could make the migration. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he rides by and he looks to me and he says, ila ayna ya Um Abdullah? Where are you going, Um Abdullah? So she said, I responded in anger to him. Right, like, you know what, I'm sick of you. We've had enough of you.
So she said to him that we are searching throughout Ardillah, throughout the land of Allah, so that we will no longer be harmed for worshipping Allah. Because you and your people have made it too hard for us to live in this land. Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was hurt. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he puts his head down and he says, sahibakumullah, may Allah be with you and your husband. And he rides off. That was not the answer she was expecting. She was expecting Umar radiAllahu anhu to throw a curse word back, maybe hit her, spit in her direction. That was not what she was expecting from Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So she said, he looked hurt. I saw a riqqa, these are her words, a riqqa, a softness from him that I never saw before. I never saw this softness from Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So Amr came home and I said to him, law ra'ayta Umar wa riqqatahu wa huznahu alayna. You should have seen Umar. His softness and his sadness for us when I told him that we are leaving. So she said, Amr looked at me, my husband looked at me and said, ibn al-Khattab, like let's make sure we're talking about the same Umar here. Ibn al-Khattab? I said, yeah, Umar ibn al-Khattab. And he laughed and he said, so you think he's going to become Muslim? And Umar said, yeah, maybe. And he was the one that said the famous words, the himar of al-Khattab, the donkey of al-Khattab will become Muslim before Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. SubhanAllah. The donkey of his father will become Muslim before him. You have hope in him? Are you crazy? Right? SubhanAllah. I mean, and if that's not a lesson in never X someone out, pass a judgment on them that they're done, as long as their soul is still in their body,
you never know who's going to embrace Islam. You never know who has hope. This is the story. This man, who's a noble sahabi, one of those that migrated to Habesha, thought Umar, yeah, right. No way. There's no chance. He has no redeeming quality. He's harsh, he's rude, he's abusive. No good in Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And here we are talking about Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu today, one of the greatest Muslims to ever walk the face of the earth. So that's the first thing. The second one is an incident that's not as well known. And it's in al-Bukhari. That Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and I'm going to the second half of this narration, he mentions, بَيْنَمَا أَنَا عِنْدَ آلِهَتِهِمْ إِذْ جَاءَ رَجُلٌ بِعِجَلٍ فَذَبَحَ He says that, I was once in front of the Ka'bah, and a man brought his animal, and ذَبَحَهُ, he slaughtered his animal, فَصَرَخَ بِهِ صَارِخٌ So he was sacrificing to the idols. And he said, then a person or some being that we could not see, an unseen being screamed at him, لم أسمع صارخا قط أشد صوتا منه I've never heard a scream as loud as the shout at that man. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was in front of the Ka'bah, and he's watching this man come to sacrifice an animal to an idol, and he hears a voice yelling at that man, يقول يا جليح أمر نجيح رجل فصيح يقول لا إله إلا أنت He said, interesting, subhanAllah. The words mean, ya jaleeh, you know, you wicked doer. أمر نجيح An affair has risen amongst you that will be successful. رجل فصيح An eloquent man amongst you who says لا إله إلا أنت
Saying none has the right to be worshipped but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. فَوَثَبَ الْقَوْمُ فَقُلْتُ لَا أَبْرَحُ حَتَّى أَعْلَمَ مَا وَرَاءَ هَذَا So he says that those that were around, they basically got up and ran away. They were shocked by what they just heard, he said, except for me. He said, I stood there, and I said, I'm going to see where that voice came from. I want to know what just happened. So he said, another time, the voice came out and called out, يَا جَلِيحْ أَمْرٌ نَجِيحٌ رَجُلٌ فَصِيحٌ يَقُولُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا إِلَّا اللَّهُ He said that the same thing was said. He said that it happened a third time, and he said, so I stood up, and when I stood up, I heard a few days later that a man has come out amongst us claiming prophethood. So he said this was a few days before the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam claimed prophethood, that this incident happened around the Kaaba, and he said, I witnessed that incident as a young man. I didn't make much of it. One of those things, I just passed off, and I did not want to know what happened. Now the third narration, which is the most interesting of them all, it's my favorite narration about the psychology of Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu as Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is putting Islam in front of him, where he cannot deny what is happening in front of him. Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu says that I was far away from Islam. I didn't really care for religion, I was driving people away from it. I really had no interest in this deen whatsoever, and he said I was addicted to drinking. I used to love to drink. SubhanAllah, just like Hamza radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu, his weakness in Jahiliyyah, his weakness in the days of ignorance, he used to drink a lot. So he said I used to love to drink, and I would gather with people who would drink alcohol. So his social gatherings, his hanging out at night, was people that would get together and they would drink khamr. So he said one night I went out, he's 25 years old by the way, when this is happening, 25 to 27 years old.
Again, don't think Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu, 50 year old, 60 year old, no. He's much younger than the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu and some of the others in that ranking. Young man. He said so one night I went out and I couldn't find any of my drinking buddies. There was no one around to drink. So he said I went to one person who I know could make the khamr, and I thought maybe he'll figure this out, maybe he'll have something for me. And I went to him and he had none with him. So I basically didn't have my drinking buddies, nor did I have anything to drink. So I said to myself, I guess I'll go to the Kaaba and make tawaf. Right, so sort of like religion as a last option. Let me go keep myself busy. Back then that was sort of, you know, something that they would do around the idols. You know what, let me go make tawaf. So he said it was late at night, couldn't find anyone to drink with. He was sober, which was not his normal state. And I went to the Kaaba to make tawaf, and I saw the Prophet ﷺ standing by himself praying in front of the Kaaba. SubhanAllah, the incident. Look how specific this is. He said that the Prophet ﷺ used to pray towards what? What was his qibla? Al-Aqsa. So he was praying towards Al-Sham. He was praying towards Jerusalem. And he would put the Kaaba between him and Al-Aqsa. So he wasn't actually praying to the Kaaba ﷺ, right? Or in the direction of the Kaaba. He was really praying in the direction of Al-Aqsa. But the Prophet ﷺ would situate himself at that time where the Kaaba was between him and Al-Aqsa. So he was praying towards both ﷺ. And he said, and he was standing right between Al-Rukn Al-Yamani and Al-Rukn Al-Aswad. So the Yemeni corner and the black stone. So he's giving you the exact details of where he was standing in front of the Kaaba. And the Prophet ﷺ was there.
And he was standing right in front of the Kaaba. Okay? So he's not far back from it. He's right in front of it and no one else was around. It's late at night. This was kind of a strange scene to see the Prophet ﷺ out there at this time. No one was with him. So SubhanAllah, in this moment, imagine it's just Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu and the Prophet ﷺ. He could have killed him and he could have hid that he killed him. Right? Hid the evidence. He could have done something at that time. He could have attacked the Prophet ﷺ. Something could have happened. But Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he tries something else. Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, you know what? لو أني استمعت لمحمد الليل حتى أسمع ما يقول. He said, you know what? Let me listen to him tonight. Let me get an idea of what he's actually saying. Because up until now, he never really heard him read Quran. He didn't really care for anything the Prophet ﷺ was actually saying or what his message was about. He said, let me go and listen to him and see what he's saying. So Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, so I went to the opposite side of the Ka'bah. All right? Think about the Ka'bah now. I went to the opposite side. He said, and I entered myself under its thiyab, so under the cloth of the Ka'bah. And he said, I started to go around the Ka'bah, right? Under the cloth. Until he said, I was right in front of the Prophet ﷺ, تحت ثيابها, under the cloth of the Ka'bah. And he's giving you the incident. He says, ما بيني وبينه إلا ثياب الكعبة. The only thing between me and the Prophet ﷺ was just the cloth of the Ka'bah. SubhanAllah, what an incident. So I'm standing in front of him, hiding under the cloth of the Ka'bah. And the Prophet ﷺ is reciting Quran, so Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, so I started to listen to him for some time. And he said, it started to get to my heart and I thought to myself,
I've never heard anything more beautiful than this. Can you imagine, just you and the Prophet ﷺ in front of the Ka'bah, by the way? Imagine what it was like to be in front of the Prophet ﷺ, him reading the Quran by himself in front of the Ka'bah. And Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was standing there and he's saying, oh my God, this is beautiful. I've never heard anything so beautiful. And then he's talking to himself, he says, فقلت في نفسي, I said to myself, هذا والله شاعر كما قالت قريش. He said, this man is truly a poet, the way Quraish says about him. Because Umar radiAllahu anhu was a literate man, he appreciated, right? Compositions and poetry and words, he says, what a poet this man is. Like I'm just appreciating right now his poetry. He says, then the Prophet ﷺ was reciting Surat al-Haqqa. And immediately as soon as I thought that, إنه لقول رسول كريم وما هو بقول شاعر قليلًا ما تؤمنون. SubhanAllah, it was like he was reading his mind. Immediately the words came from the Prophet ﷺ. He just happened to be reading Surat al-Haqqa. That this is but the words of a noble messenger and these are not the words of a poet. Little do you believe. Answer the objection of Umar radiAllahu anhu. So Umar radiAllahu anhu said, I said to myself, كاهن علم ما في نفسي. A sorcerer. He knows what's going through my head right now. What are the next words? ولا بقول كاهن قليلًا ما تذكرون. And these are not the words of a soothsayer or a sorcerer. Little do you remember. Umar radiAllahu anhu said, so I was shocked. Umar radiAllahu anhu said, let me get out of here. So he got out of that situation. He even mentions how like he got sick for some time.
Like he was so shocked by the incident that happened between him and the Prophet ﷺ. Like he couldn't make sense of what happened. Now he could have gone to the Prophet ﷺ and said, you know what, I'm ready to be Muslim now. But instead he's confused. He's lost. Believing in Islam would mean undoing his entire reputation in society and everything that he's known for, right? The strong guy that keeps society together, that advocates for Quraysh, that all of these different things. This would ruin it all for him. So Umar radiAllahu anhu said that I was really conflicted, confused. He said Islam had entered his heart, but at the same time, he was still fighting with it, right? He's fighting with it on the inside. So then he said, I went out and Abu Jahl was addressing the leaders of Quraysh. And Abu Jahl said, Ya ma'ashara Quraysh, O leaders of Quraysh, who will kill Muhammad ﷺ for us? He's divided our tribes. He has insulted our idols. And whoever kills him will have a hundred red camels from me and all the gold and silver that they can imagine. Now why did Abu Jahl do this? Some of the context that we'll learn in the story is that this could have been because the Islam of Hamza radiAllahu ta'ala anhu already had sort of started the new page in the seerah that really scared these leaders of Quraysh. Because Hamza radiAllahu anhu becoming Muslim was a game changer already. And so now we really have to kill him. Because we're afraid at this point if we don't, now that Hamza has embraced Islam, there's a new class of people that might embrace Islam. But in any case, we don't know that for sure. What we do know is that Umar radiAllahu anhu said, you know what, ana laha, I'm going to do it. So he said to Abu Jahl, my uncle, I've got it. I'm going to go out and I'm going to kill the Prophet ﷺ. He pulls out his sword and he starts to march towards the Prophet ﷺ's house.
And they said that Umar radiAllahu anhu is walking briskly. He's not even trying to hide his intentions. His sword is like out. You could see him angry. And he's saying as he is walking, وَيْحَ مُحَمَّدًا مَا أَحْدَثَ فِينَا Woe to Muhammad ﷺ for what he has done to us, what he brought to us. تَعُودُ مَكَّ إِلَى مَا كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِ مِن قَبْلٍ I'm going to make sure Mecca goes back to the way it used to be. This is not about arrogance, ego for him. This is, I'm sick of this disruption in society. It's messing with my head now. It's messed with Mecca. It's time to end this fitna. That's how he's looking at it, right? I want to end this fitna in Mecca, this dissension in Mecca by just killing the Prophet ﷺ and getting it over with. So he's walking, he's storming, and there's a young man by the name of Nu'aym ibn Abdullah. And Nu'aym ibn Abdullah is also from Banu Adi and he's also a secret Muslim. So he's from Umar's tribe and he's also secretly a Muslim. And he sees Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala Anhu walking that way. And he says, إلى أين يا ابن الخطاب؟ Where are you going, O ibn الخطاب? You don't have that sword out for a small reason. You're clearly determined to go do something. And Umar radiyaAllahu Anhu says, I'm going to go kill Muhammad ﷺ and bring Mecca back to the way that it used to be. So now Nu'aym is really concerned. He's trying to think of a diversion. So first he tries to reason with Umar radiyaAllahu Anhu. He says, but what about the nobility of Muhammad ﷺ? Isn't he a صادق الأمين, a truthful one, a trustworthy one, who always did good for his people? He's not a bad man, right? Shouldn't we consider his character and the person that he is? And then Nu'aym, he says to him, and if that does not get to you, you've lost your mind, ya Umar, if you think that Banu Abdi Manaf, meaning the tribe of the Prophet ﷺ, is going to let you walk after you kill the Prophet ﷺ.
At the end of the day, tribalism will come into play here. That's what brought Hamzah out initially in the first place, right? That Banu Mahzum, Abu Jahl, insulted the Prophet ﷺ. It was tribalism at first. So he said, you think Banu Abdi Manaf is going to let you get away with killing Muhammad ﷺ? So Umar radiyaAllahu Anhu is looking at him, and Umar is smart, and he says, could it be that you too have apostated? And when he's saying sab'a, you've apostated, meaning from our ways, Mecca, Quraysh, right? And Nu'aym says, of course not. You know, no, no, no, it's not that. Umar radiyaAllahu Anhu, he points his sword towards him, and he says, لو أعلم ذلك لبدأت بك. He said, if I find out that you really are one of them, I'm actually going to kill you before I go kill him. And that's where Nu'aym says, أَفَلَأَدُلُكَ عَلَىٰ ٱلْعَجَبِيَّ أَعُمَرُ You want me to tell you something really amazing, O Umar? Now he's desperate. I'm trying to get him away from the Prophet ﷺ. He says, قَدْ دَخَلَ عَلَيْكَ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ فِي بَيْتِكَ You think I'm the problem? You're worried about me becoming Muslim? This affair has already reached your home. Umar says, who? From my house? Who? Nu'aym says to him, your sister Fatima and your brother-in-law Sa'eed, they've become Muslim and they follow Muhammad ﷺ and his religion. So before you take care of Muhammad ﷺ, why don't you take care of your own family first? What's Nu'aym trying to do? He's trying to buy time to go run to the Prophet ﷺ and hide the Prophet ﷺ away from Umar ﷺ. And in the process, he knows that Umar is a proud man. The only thing that's going to stop him is your own family, right? You're a hypocrite. You want to go handle the Prophet ﷺ? What about your own family? So Umar ﷺ turns around and he rushes to the house of Fatima bint al-Khattab, Sa'eed ibn Zayd.
Nu'aym goes running to the Prophet ﷺ to tell the Prophet ﷺ what happened. Umar ﷺ goes towards the house of Fatima, his sister. When he gets to the door, he can hear humming the Quran being recited. So Umar ﷺ bangs on the door. And who was teaching his sister and his brother-in-law Quran? Doesn't anyone know? I told you some of the old biographies will connect. Khabbab ibn al-Arat ﷺ. Khabbab was there teaching Fatima and Sa'eed the Quran. And he was the reciter in the house. Now Umar is Umar and Khabbab, come on, who's going to protect Khabbab? Khabbab belongs to the most persecuted class in Mecca. So if Umar finds Khabbab, he's going to tear him to pieces at this point. Up until now, by the way, unlike Abu Jahl, Umar has never killed anyone. He's beaten, he's spit, he's cursed, he's been abusive, but he hasn't been to the viciousness of Abu Jahl. But this is a different moment. He's ready to kill the Prophet ﷺ, so he's going to kill whoever's in front of him, right? So Umar ﷺ, when he bangs on the door, Fatima, Sa'eed, Khabbab become very worried. Khabbab goes and he hides in the house somewhere, and you know, where Umar will not be able to find him. Fatima opens the door. Umar ﷺ bursts in. And he says, what is it that I was hearing? They said nothing. He said, no, no, I was hearing something being recited. I was hearing a humming. What was I hearing? They said nothing. And he said, is it true that you have apostated? Saba'ti, you've apostated, and you followed Muhammad ﷺ, ya aduwat nafsihah, enemy of yourself. So he's speaking to his sister very harshly. Is it true? And Fatima is kind of frozen. She doesn't know how to answer Umar ﷺ, because Umar was extremely full of rage at this point.
And Sa'eed ibn Zayd ﷺ steps forward, and he says, araytia ya Umar wan kaana alhaqqu fee ghayri deenik? So what would you say, oh Umar, if the truth was in other than your religion? When Umar heard that from Sa'eed, he pounced on Sa'eed ﷺ, and he started to beat him, and he started to abuse him, almost killing him. So he almost killed Sa'eed ibn Zayd ﷺ in these moments. Now, by the way, go back and watch the lecture on Sa'eed ibn Zayd, and you'll see the love and the respect that he had for him. But this is a moment. This is a different Umar ﷺ in these moments. Umar ﷺ was sitting on the chest of Sa'eed ibn Zayd. Sa'eed was panting for breath, and he's punching him blow after blow after blow after blow. And Fatima tries to control Umar ﷺ and stop him. And when she does that, he moves his hand backwards, and he smacks her on the face and pushes her back, which caused her to start bleeding down her face, and she starts to cry, and she becomes obviously very emotional. And when that happens, Umar ﷺ, he looks at her, and she says, يَبْنَا الْخَطَّابُ مَا كُنتَ صَانِعًا فَصْنَعْ فَقَدْ أَسْلَمْتُ O Ibn Khattab, do what you want to us. I became Muslim. Like, go ahead, do what you want to us. I became Muslim. And Sa'eed ﷺ responds under Umar ibn Khattab and says, قَدْ أَسْلَمْنَا وَآمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِي فَمَا كُنتَ صَانِعًا فَصْنَعْ We have become Muslim. We believe in Allah and His Messenger. Whatever you're going to do to us, do. Go ahead and kill us. We're ready to be martyrs. We won't be the first martyrs. This is a post-Sumayyah world, a post-family of Yasser world in this time, right? Where, you know what? We won't be the first people killed for our deen. Go ahead and kill us. مَا كُنتَ صَانِعًا فَصْنَعْ
Umar ﷺ looks at them, and he says, اَسْتَحْيَيْتُ عَلَى نَفْسِي I was ashamed of myself. Seeing my sister with the blood running down her face. Umar ﷺ was strong, but he wasn't a person who had no nobility. This is his own sister. So he said, I was ashamed of myself. So I got up off of Sa'eed, and he looks at Sa'eed, and he looks at Fatima. And Sa'eed says to him that you're not going to be able to gather the people upon falsehood while the truth is other than what they claim. And Sa'eed is saying to him basically, look, do what you're going to do to us, and even if you kill us, you're not going to be able to gather the people. لَا تَجْمَعْ النَّاسَ عَلَى بَاثِر SubhanAllah, like he knows his motivation. If you're trying to hold Meccan society together, you're not going to hold them on falsehood. The truth is not with you, O Umar. It's not with your people. So Umar ﷺ, he sat on the couch, sits down, tense moment. Sa'eed ﷺ was almost beaten to death. Fatima, his sister, is bleeding and crying. Khabbab is hiding. رضي الله تعالى عنه He did not get into that at this point, right? Khabbab would have been the first person killed in that moment, right? And Umar ﷺ, he's, you know, imagine the heavy breathing, the tears, the blood, the tension in the room. Umar ﷺ sees the pages of the Quran in the corner. He says, what is that? And they ignored his question. He said, bring it to me. And Fatima ﷺ responds and she says to him, لست من أهلها You're not from its people. It's not for you. And Umar ﷺ عنه He says to her, وَيْحَكِي قَدْ وَقَعْ فِي قَلْبِ مَنْ قُلْتِ He said, listen, what you said has entered my heart. I'm listening to you right now. I'm calm right now. Bring me that which you have. أَنظُرْ مَا هَذَا الَّذِي جَاءَ بِهِ مُحَمَّدٍ صلى الله عليه وسلم Let me look at what Muhammad ﷺ has brought to you.
So Fatima said that we're afraid of what you're going to do with it. She said لا تخافي Don't worry. I will, you have my word. I will give it to you exactly in the same way you give it to me. I just want to read it and see what it is that Muhammad ﷺ is teaching you. So she saw some of the softness that Umar ﷺ saw in him on that day. And she says to Umar ﷺ using a different tone. يا أخي, Oh my brother, إنك مشرك You are a polytheist. وإنه لا يمسه إلا المطهرون And no one should touch this except for those who are pure. فإن كنت صادقا If you're true, if you're being truthful in what you're saying right now that you're actually interested in that you're calm and you want to know what we have. فقم فاختسل Get up and do ghusl. Go wash yourself the way that we wash ourselves when we read this Quran. So Umar ﷺ He gets out. He washes himself. He does ghusl. He walks back into the house. He sits down. He says now give it to me. Fatima brings him the copy of the pages of the Quran. He stares at it and the first thing he reads is what? Actually, بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم That's the first thing. SubhanAllah, sometimes we skip the small things in the narration because we just take them for granted. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful. الرحمن الرحيم Quraish used to say بسمك اللهم In the name of Allah, in the name of God, but they didn't know the names of الرحمن الرحيم. That's why we see in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah Suhaib ibn Amr رضي الله تعالى عنه At that time, not a Muslim, he objected to الرحمن الرحيم. Right? So Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه said what beautiful names these are. He's calm right now. He's listening and he's just appreciating. He says these are beautiful names. الرحمن الرحيم And then he starts to read.
And imagine Umar's first recitation of the Quran. طاه ما أنزلنا عليك القرآن لتشقى We did not reveal this Quran upon you to cause you distress. SubhanAllah, this is not the purpose of the revelation of the Quran. إلا تذكرة لمن يخشى This is a reminder for people of awe, people of humility, people of خشية إلا تذكرة لمن يخشى تنزيل من من خلق الأرض والسماوات العلى الرحمن على العرش استوى The words of Surah Taha, subhanAllah, are so powerful and they apply so perfectly to Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of that which is observable and that which is not observable. الرحمن, once again, the most merciful, send it upon his throne. له ما في السماوات وما في الأرض وما بينهما وما تحت الثرى وإن تجهر بالقول If you speak your words or if you keep them to yourself, Allah knows that which is hidden and that which is even less than that which is hidden. Allah knows what is said, what is not said, and even beyond, even beneath what is not said. Allah knows all of it. Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه As he's reading it, he comes to this realization. He says, ما أطيب هذا الكلام وأحسن Beautiful words these are. How perfect are these words. ما أطيب هذا الكلام Like I'm reading with clear mind and clear heart and I'm just appreciating the words. ما أطيب هذا الكلام وأحسن And he keeps on reading until he gets to and subhanAllah, I just think about the words that he stopped at. إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدْنِي وَأَقِمَ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي Like you know when you read the Quran, you're supposed to read it as a message to you. إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ I am Allah. Speaking to Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه.
إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا There is no God but me. فَاعْبُدْنِي So worship me alone. وَأَقِمَ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي And establish the prayer out of my remembrance. Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه said, the one who spoke these words has the right to have no one worship beside him. This Ilah should have no one worshipped beside him. He's reading it as if it is being revealed to him. He puts it down. He says, من هذا فرّت قريش SubhanAllah, like look at all the self-reflection and realization that this is what Quraish is running away from. This is the evil that Quraish is afraid of. This is what Quraish hates so much. This is why Abu Jaha is persecuting these people. This is why I've been persecuting people. من هذا فرّت قريش This is what we're running away from. But this is beautiful. Why would we run away from this? So as Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه is coming to that realization, Khabbab رضي الله عنه finally comes out. He's been hiding the whole time. Listening to the violence, listening to both canary 64 and NSFW Civil War ISAC to hear the mockery of how banks were lying. The Ally addictedasures.aticized when воды The conversations and Khabbab رضي الله تعالى عنه comes out. And he says, أبشر يا عمر بكرامة الله Lie tidings to you, O Umar, with the generosity of Allah. Umar goes, أنت القارئ? You were the one that was reading when I first got to the door. Like, wait a minute, let's establish what's happening here first, right? He says أبشر يا عمر بكرامة الله And he says, he said to him, I was the one reciting. And he says وإني أرجو أن تكون قد سبقت فيك دعوة رسول الله And I hope that the dua of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Has been accepted in regards to you. For I heard him say, اللهم عز الإسلام بيحب هذين الرجلين إليك عمر بن الخطاب أو عمر بن هشام Oh Allah, give victory to Islam with the more beloved of these two men to you.
عمر بن هشام أبو جهل عمر بن هشام or عمر بن الخطاب, one of the two Umars. عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله تعالى عنهم Can you imagine when he just hears that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Was making dua that the more beloved to Allah of the two Will be the one upon whose hand Islam will be given victory? Now عمر و أبو جهل were very similar in their stature, in their intelligence, In their leadership skills, their size, all of that. عمر رضي الله عنه a lot younger, less vicious. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw hope in both of them. He said the one that's more beloved to you, Oh Allah. عمر رضي الله عنه says أوقت قال ذلك رسول الله He said did Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم really say that? خباب رضي الله تعالى عنه said Yes والله يا عمر he said that. And عمر رضي الله تعالى عنه says At that moment ما في الأرض نسمة أحب إلي من رسول الله Subhanallah, at that moment there was no person in the world more beloved to me than Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. Like I went out to kill this man عليه الصلاة والسلام And right now there is no person in the world that was more beloved to me than the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم فقلت أين رسول الله So I said where is the messenger of Allah? Take me to him, I'm going to become Muslim. فاطمة رضي الله عنها said يا ابن الخطاب do you promise not to bring to him anything that displeases him? He says no, I promise. I promise my sister, I'm being sincere. I want to go and become Muslim. So خباب takes him to دار الأرقام He gets to دار الأرقام عمر من الخطاب knocks on the door عمر does not hide in society He just walks through the streets by the way He's not afraid of anybody Walks with his sword still with him Why does he still have a sword with him? Because he was going to kill the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم He goes to دار الأرقام and he knocks on the door A man looks out and they don't have the ring back then But he sees عمر رضي الله عنه at the door This is the nightmare scenario of them all Because if there was anyone that would just kill them all And not care about consequences
It was عمر رضي الله عنه, right? So when he sees that he immediately panics And he says هذا عمر, هذا عمر This is عمر, this is عمر He has his sword Guess who's sitting there amongst them that wasn't sitting with them before? حمزة رضي الله عنه The words of حمزة sometimes is cool And the فصحة sounds a lot like the modern day He says ما لكم? Like ما لكم? What's your problem? He's completely relaxed As if nothing is happening right now They said عمر من الخطاب And he's coming and he has a sword with him He said وإن كان عمر So what if he's عمر? حمزة says open the door He says if he wants good Then Allah will receive him with good And if he's come with some other intention Then I will kill him with my own sword I'll separate his head from his body حمزة says let عمر in I'm not worried about him So this is a new development Because they weren't used to having this To having a حمزة amongst them Right? In that sense The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم He says go ahead and let him in If Allah wants good for him Then Allah will guide him SubhanAllah when they open the door for عمر Does حمزة apprehend عمر? No The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم goes up to عمر And he grabs him with both of his hands And he starts to shake his garment And he brings him to his knees SubhanAllah Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم himself This is a strange sight for the Muslims The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم grabs him And he pulls him to his knees And he says ما جاء بك يا ابن الخطاب He's speaking to him harshly What brought you here? Oh ابن الخطاب ما أنت بمنتهن حتى ينزل الله بك قارع Are you not going to stop until Allah sends a lightning bolt Or some sort of disaster upon you? What is your problem? When are you going to wake up, oh عمر? Like this is tough love from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم To عمر رضي الله عنه And this isn't حمزة This is the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم himself And عمر رضي الله عنه was brought to his knees And عمر was such a big man
That when he's brought to his knees You're eye to eye with him So he says يا رسول الله جئتك ليؤمن بالله وبرسوله وبما جاء من عند الله يا رسول الله I've come to you to believe in Allah And to believe in the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم And what he has brought from Allah أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأنك رسول الله Right away I testify to the oneness of Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah What was the response of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم? Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم immediately grabbed him again Put him on the ground Shook him Received him this way This whole scene is so strange to the Muslims What is happening here, right? And عمر رضي الله عنه immediately submits himself Takes shahada The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says الله أكبر الله أكبر Says الله أكبر So what does everyone do? They all shout Allah أكبر They all shout Allah أكبر Forgetting that they were in a hidden home in Mecca They used to try to keep their voices down in Dar Al-Arqam They all shout Allah أكبر Because they realized that عمر رضي الله عنه just became Muslim So all these Muslims in Dar Al-Arqam start to shout Allah أكبر The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم He puts his hand on his chest He struck his chest three times And he says اللهم أيد دينك بابن الخطاب اللهم أخرج ما في صدره من غل وأبدله إيمانا Oh Allah support your deen with Ibn Khattab And oh Allah take away anything from his heart that remains of malice and switch it Exchange it with Iman Exchange it with Iman In one narration Ibn Abbas صلى الله عليه وسلم says لم أسلم عمر When عمر رضي الله عنه became Muslim نزل جبريل Jibreel عليه السلام came to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم And said يا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم لقد استبشر أهل السماء بإسلام عمر The inhabitants of the heavens right now are celebrating the Islam of Umar All of the Sahaba are saying الله أكبر And Jibreel عليه السلام tells the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم All of the angels in the heavens are also
Praising Allah سبحانه وتعالى Imagine the angels in the heavens All of the inhabitants of the heavens saying الله أكبر Because they know that what just happened is no small deal Now by the way An important detail Umar's Islam came just three days after Hamza SubhanAllah Changes things a bit right Three days after Hamza May Allah be pleased with him So when Hamza became Muslim رضي الله عنه That was one boost right Now Umar becomes Muslim رضي الله عنه Three days after Hamza At the same time Amr Ibn Aas just got back from Abyssinia Having failed to bring back the migrants from Abyssinia So he failed with the Muslims in Abyssinia He comes back to Mecca The news is Umar and Hamza just became Muslim He's arriving at the exact same time As Umar and Hamza became Muslim So this is a complete in a matter of three days A complete game changer Umar رضي الله عنه says There were 39 men in Islam And I was the 40th person The 40th man to embrace Islam So here is Umar رضي الله عنه Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed After the Islam of Hamza رضي الله عنه ادفع بالتي هي أحسن فإذا الذي بينك وبينه عداوة كأنه ولي حميم The verse in Fussilat That respond to that which is evil With that which is better And you will find That those who have enmity with you Will be like your closest friends They'll become your allies They'll go from being your enemies to your allies ادفع بالتي هي أحسن فإذا الذي بينك وبينه عداوة كأنه ولي حميم The ulema say that this was The celebration of Hamza And the bushra of Umar The glad tidings that someone even bigger than Hamza Is about to become Muslim When Umar رضي الله عنه became Muslim Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed
أَوَمَنْ كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ Was he not dead? And we gave him light By which he walks amongst Life by which he walks with a light amongst the people Like Umar رضي الله عنه Was a walking dead man amongst you And Allah gave him life And now imagine a person with light Walking amongst the people What does that look like? What that looks like is Umar رضي الله عنه As soon as he becomes Muslim And the Muslims are saying الله أكبر Umar رضي الله عنه Says يا رسول الله أَلَسْنَا عَلَى الحَقِّ Aren't we upon the truth? Whether we die or whether we live Aren't we upon the truth? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says yes And he says And aren't they upon falsehood? He's already speaking the language of us and they Okay And aren't they upon falsehood? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says yes Umar رضي الله عنه said Then why are we hiding? Let's go out there and proclaim our Islam This is where it gets very interesting by the way And this was the day by the way That the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم called him الفاروق That day The one فَرَّقَ اللَّهُ بِهِ بَيْنَ الْحَقِّ وَالْبَاطِلِ Allah الفاروق is the You know The one who The barrier The one who decides The differentiator between truth and falsehood الفاروق Is Umar رضي الله عنه He's like a barrier between falsehood and truth So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says You know what? Let's go out and proclaim our Islam This will be the first time حمزة رضي الله عنه just became Muslim Umar رضي الله عنه became Muslim Suddenly these two strong men are now Muslim You know what? Let's go out and let's declare our Islam So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would arrange the Muslims in two rows One behind Hamza One behind Umar And they go out marching Doing Tasbeeh and Tahlil and Takbir Proclaiming their Islam Glorifying Allah سبحانه وتعالى Declaring the oneness of Allah
And they're standing behind Umar and Hamza No one's going to touch them When Umar and Hamza May Allah be pleased with them Are the ones leading the two rows On top of that Umar رضي الله تعالى He's not satisfied He wants a little bit of confrontation They're not doing anything So Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه He says Who's the person in society that can't hold water in his mouth? Meaning who's the big mouth in society? I want the news to spread quicker that I became Muslim So he said Oh it's Jamil ibn Muammar He said Let me go to Jamil ibn Muammar So he goes to Jamil ibn Muammar He says Hey Aslamt I became Muslim Jamil jumps up And he goes to the Kaaba And he starts screaming to everyone in society And he says That Ya Quraysh Umar قد صبى Umar قد صبى Umar has apostated Umar has apostated Umar رضي الله تعالى says Hey You're lying Aslamt I said I became Muslim Not apostated But the point is Is that the word is getting out And people already know So here's what Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه wanted All these men come out from Quraysh And they start to attack Umar Umar had a field day with them He started to beat them up one by one Starts laying them up Laying them out all over the ground And Umar رضي الله عنه is doing this for hours Until Umar رضي الله عنه gets a little bit tired Of just beating people up at this point No one was able to get him down Umar رضي الله عنه was beating them up One by one around the Kaaba And then Umar says I got tired So he took Uthbah ibn Rabi'a Who was of course an enemy of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Umar رضي الله عنه pinned him to the ground And then he sat on him And Umar put his fingers in his eyes Exactly Okay He put his two fingers in his eyes And Umar said to Uthbah Tell your men to back off Or I'm going to pluck your eyes out So Uthbah is screaming And saying ارجعوا ارجعوا Get away from him Get away from him And Umar رضي الله عنه was poking at his two eyes Clawing his eyes And Umar رضي الله عنه takes a break
After beating up these men for hours And then you know they gather up some steam again And Umar رضي الله عنه was ready to go for round two at this point And as that's about to happen A man comes forth And he is in a fine thawb A hulla Which is like a silk suit of the time And he says to them What are you people doing? He says look The man chose a religion for himself And that's his business Leave him alone He says if you keep fighting him Or if you kill him Then Banu Adi will come after you And we're never going to be able to stop this So everyone go home Enough So everyone dispersed Abdullah bin Umar رضي الله عنهم He says I asked my father Who was that man And he said that was Al-As ibn Wa'id The father of Amr Al-As ibn Wa'id So he was a respected man That was able to disperse the crowds at that point Umar رضي الله عنهم Still not satisfied Umar رضي الله عنهم said So I thought to myself Who is the person That hates the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم most His biggest enemy in society The person who would be most bothered By me being Muslim He said my uncle Abu Jahl So instead of waiting for Abu Jahl to come to him Umar رضي الله عنهم Goes and he knocks on the door of Abu Jahl Abu Jahl comes out and says مرحباً وأهلاً He welcomes him And it's his nephew Umar ibn Al-Khattab رضي الله عنهم Right And the last conversation they had Was that Umar was going to be the one That killed the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم And received the gift The bounty from Abu Jahl Umar رضي الله عنهم He says to him I want you to know أمنت بالله ورسوله I'm just here to tell you I believe in Allah And his messenger وصدقت ما جاء به And I have I have affirmed everything That he has brought Abu Jahl said لا تفعل Don't do it He said too late He said don't do it He said too late So Umar رضي الله عنهم said Abu Jahl slammed the door in my face And he said قبح ما جئت به Like what a horrible thing that you brought to me He said leave me alone Go away Basically cursed him out and said leave me alone
This is the beginning of Umar بن خطاب رضي الله تعالى عنه In Islam Abdullah بن مسعود رضي الله تعالى عنه Has probably the most powerful statement in this regard About the significance of this conversion Of Umar بن خطاب رضي الله تعالى عنه In the early days of Islam Abdullah بن مسعود رضي الله تعالى عنه He says والله I swear by Allah He says إن إسلام عمر كان فتحاً وكانت هجرته نصراً وكانت إمارته رحمة He said the Islam of Umar was a conquest in and of itself It was victory When Umar became Muslim it changed everything Remember Abdullah بن مسعود رضي الله تعالى عنه Was the first one to recite Quran publicly And almost was killed for it And he was of the weak of society He said when Umar became Muslim Subhanallah That day of Islam was a victory It was as if it was a conquest in and of itself And his hijrah was a victory And his leadership was a mercy His leadership was a mercy Why? Because Umar رضي الله عنه Upheld the rights of who? The weak and the oppressed under his Khilafah His Khilafah is the noted Khilafah of justice For those who were weak and those who were oppressed And he said لقد رأيتنا I remember the days وما نستطيع أن نصلي بالبيت حتى أسلم عمر فلما أسلم عمر قاتلهم حتى تركونا فصلينا He said that I remember the days We could not go and pray in front of the Kaaba When Umar became Muslim We'd go out and we'd pray And Umar would beat the people up Until we would be left alone and we could pray Like no one would come near us Because Umar would fight them off And we would be able to pray So he's remembering those days of Umar رضي الله عنه Suhaib الرومي He says we used to never be able to congregate in public as Muslims No two Muslims could even be in public But he said after Umar رضي الله عنه We started to congregate We started to pray We started to do tawaf And he said and when they hit us we hit back So subhanAllah the consequences of the Islam
Of one person which was Umar رضي الله عنه A man subhanAllah who set out to kill the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم And ended up being in front of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم As a believer And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Marching behind him As Umar رضي الله عنه Leads the way and opens the door for Islam A man subhanAllah who set out to kill the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم And ended up being buried next to him A man who they said his father's donkey would become Muslim before him And here he was And Allah subhanAllah answered the dua of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم And gave Izzah to Islam Through the Islam of Umar رضي الله عنه Just in a few minutes I know we're a few minutes past Isha I'll go ahead and I will wrap up At this point now you have Hamza And you have Umar رضي الله عنه May Allah be pleased with them And that's where you start to see now the boycott Abu Jahl has to resort to different ways To hurt the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم So choking them out Banu Hashman, Banu Mutalib Through the economic boycott The persecution is not like it used to be Because it wasn't just Bidaz and Khabbabs now It was Umars and Hamzas at this point They could not just go And it wasn't just fair game to go and attack Muslims in public anymore So they had to think of different ways to persecute And to make things more difficult on the Muslims But now the physical strength was different And Ali رضي الله عنه describes the Hijrah Which came a few years later And he said مَا عَلَمْتُ أَنَّ أَحَدَرْ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ هَاجَرْ إِلَّا مُخْتَفْيًا He said I don't know of anyone that made Hijrah Except that they concealed their Hijrah He said except for Umar رضي الله عنه He said you know what Umar did on the day of the Hijrah People were trying to sneak out and hide He said Umar رضي الله عنه on the day of his Hijrah He went out openly with his sword and with his bow He went to the Kaaba And he calmly made Tawaf seven times around the Kaaba And he prayed two rak'ahs after he made his Tawaf
And after he prayed calmly took his time Not worried about anyone trying to come after him Umar رضي الله عنه went to all of them in Quraysh He went to their groups He went to their leaders He went to their faces He says شاهت الوجوه You humiliated faces Who Allah will humiliate Who Allah has declared as a humiliated people And he says من أراد أن يذكر أمه أو يرمل زوجته أو ييتم ولده Whoever wants that his mother would cry over him Or his wife would become a widow Or his children would be orphans He said فليلقني وراء هذا الواد Come meet me behind the valley Basically let's have one last brawl before I leave Mecca And he's going to them and he's saying is anyone going to come And he spent some time threatening them saying you guys want to come fight And subhanAllah only some of the مصطفعفين Some of the weak people They followed Umar رضي الله عنه behind the valley And they said we don't want to fight you Can you teach us what you've learned We want to join you And so they became Muslim And Umar رضي الله عنه had the largest group of people When he made the hijrah to Al Medina And they did not fear for themselves SubhanAllah they did not fear for themselves There were over 20 people walking making the hijrah making the migration to Al Medina With Umar رضي الله عنه in their presence And they did not fear for themselves when Umar رضي الله عنه was amongst them Umar رضي الله عنه brought a strength to the Muslims that was not there before And Umar رضي الله عنه from that day forward His conversion was not just the most consequential conversion in the history of Islam Umar رضي الله عنه took every negative quality that he had And turned it into a positive quality And that's the genius of Umar رضي الله عنه The most successful taskiya experiment that you will find
A person who gives you no excuses He took his cruelty prior to Islam and turned it into mercy and justice for the weak and for those who were poor He took his anger and he channeled it towards righteousness He took his strength and he channeled it towards righteousness He became humble رضي الله عنه when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم spoke he humbled himself He was a man who would cry and pray at night رضي الله عنه He was charitable Everything that would have been negative as a result of his strength he turned it into positive And he is Al-Farooq رضي الله عنه And he is a man who stands out first and foremost with his sincerity And insha'Allah ta'ala the next time we will talk about his virtues رضي الله عنه To cover the seerah of Umar would take too long We will talk about his virtues insha'Allah ta'ala And parallel that to his life رضي الله عنه And we will see where it takes us from there بإذن الله تعالى So with that insha'Allah ta'ala because we are already 10 minutes past Salatul Isha' We will go ahead and stop tonight without any questions JazakumAllahu khayran وصلى الله وسلم وبرك على نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
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