HAZRAT UMAR BEFORE ISLAM
HAZRAT Umar Farooq, may God be pleased with him, was born in Makkah, an ancient town in Arabia.
It is not known exactly
when he was born, as people did not record their date of birth in those days. It is known however,
that he was about eleven years younger than the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him.He is one of four famous SAHABA R.A.
HAZRAT Umar’s father Khattaab was one of the leaders of the Quraish tribe. His mother Hantma was
the daughter of Hishaam bin Al-Mugheerah. Hishaam
was a person of such high rank that whenever the tribe of Quraish
declared war on any other tribe, he was always called upon for the duty of raising an army and leading it to the battlefield. One of the four Khulfa e Rashedeen and Sahaba R.A.
Hazrat Umar, may Allah
be pleased with him, learned to read and write in his childhood. It was considered to be a great achievement as very few people could read or write in those days. He loved poetry and like other Arabs could
recite the poems of a large number of Arab poets from memory.
He grew up into a responsible young man. His father entrusted him with the job of grazing camels in the fields on the outskirts
of Makkah. He learned the art of wrestling, horse riding and was a skilled
swordsman.
Later Umar showed
interest in commerce and
became a
very successful and wealthy trader.
He travelled to distant
lands such as Syria, Iraq and Persia
for this purpose.
In those days Makkah was situated on a trade route where camel caravans, carrying merchandise, used to come and go.
UKKAAZ FAIR
In those days a fair was held every year in the town of Ukkaaz,
a few miles from Makkah. People used
to come from all over Arabia to attend the fair and display
their skills. Wrestling
matches, athletics
and archery competitions
were held. Another attraction was the poetry sessions. Poetry was one of the favourite hobbies of the Arabs. They could recite
thousands of verses from memory. In these poetry
competitions poets used to recite verses
in praise of their own tribe
and mocking the enemy tribes.
Sometimes people were greatly offended by
these verses and such sessions often ended in bloodshed.
Hazrat Umar used to attend
the Ukkaaz fair regularly. He was an excellent horse rider and a very good wrestler. Many a time he would participate in a wrestling bout
and beat his opponent easily.
On one occasion as Umar was wandering
around with his friends, someone pointed to a young man in the crowd and praised his wrestling skill. Umar could not remain silent. “He can’t be better than me”,
he said. Then he swiftly
walked up to the young man and invited
him to a wrestling bout, which was accepted gladly. The wrestling match began and in no time Umar
defeated his opponent.
UMAR WAS A BITTER ENEMY OF ISLAM
When Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, declared
that God had appointed him as
His Messenger to the whole
of mankind, Umar, like many other Makkans, opposed
him. He used to persecute Muslims. It is said that when one of Umar’s slave girls, Labeenah, accepted Islam he was so annoyed that he caught hold of her and started
beating her. He kept on hitting
her until he was
exhausted. Then he told her, “I have stopped only to get my breath back”. Hazrat Abu Bakr, who had
accepted Islam already, was passing
by. He stepped forward and bought the slave girl from Umar and
then set her free.
UMAR DID NOT OBJECT TO
THE
MIGRATION OF MUSLIMS
When persecution at the hands of Makkans
reached its extreme, the Holy Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, assembled his followers
and pointing to the West told them of a land across the
sea where people were not tortured because of their faith and where they could worship God freely. He
told his followers to migrate to Abyssinia, now known
as Ethiopia, where,
in those days,
a noble Christian king ruled. On his instructions a few Muslims including
women and children decided to go there.
The plan was kept secret for fear of Makkan
opposition. The Makkans
would not let Muslims escape in order to live elsewhere
peacefully.
On the day when the party was ready to depart from Makkah, Umar came there by chance and saw the
household effects packed on camels. He realised that these people were moving out of Makkah to take refuge elsewhere.
“Are you leaving Makkah?” he inquired from Umm-e-Abdullah, a Muslim woman.
She replied, “Yes, God is our witness,
we are leaving for another
land because you treat us most cruelly here. We will not return until God makes
it easy for us.”
Perhaps influenced by her reply
Umar did nothing to prevent their migration even though he was a bitter enemy of Islam.
Life of Muhammad PBUH
