After The Grand Event

Years Of Conquest

We have seen that the great event took place in the sixth year of Muhammad’s Mission, which means that, after his conversion, `Omar remained with the Prophet, Allah’s Peace and Blessings be upon him, for seven years before the great emigration to Yathrib started. During these seven years, `Omar struggled very heavily, bitterly and terribly  against Quraish, in defence of his Faith and his brethren’s. He had to undergo various kinds of hardships, and smile in the face of adversities  and atrocities practised by the blockheaded enemies among the Quraishites, who had rearranged their front in a final attempt to put an end to this new Religion which had weakened them and destroyed their prestige  among all the other tribes of Arabia.

After his conversion, `Omar found himself in a conflict: in his days of idolatory, he used to persecute and torment the new adherents of Islam for their religion; now, he could not forbear  to see a Muslim undergo any torment inflicted upon him by a disbeliever; moreover, he made up his mind to put the disbelievers in as much an adversity for their religion as they had put the Muslims in for theirs. And not only that. His real aim, besides, was to put himself in bitter clash with the disbelievers, attacking them and, from them, receiving as much attack as could make him feel equal to his Muslim brethren even in their adversities. Justice in `Omar was, then, beginning to display itself very discernibly:  this is the justice that would afterwards be part and parcel  of the overall  character of the great man: a justice the equal of which the whole world has never known.

Yet the effect of ` Omar’s conversion in Makkah was not confined  to the public appearance of the Muslims to practise their religion, despite all the dangers they were exposed  to at the hands of the disbelievers. That effect extended to comprise other fields of propagation  in which `Omar played a very considerable  and successful role Now, he was persistent  and daring enough to propagate Islam in public, so much so that a large number of people, who had had a longing  desire to adopt the new religion but had been afraid to declare that before, now had the courage, under the patronage  of `Omar, to declare  their conversion  in public and join the community of believers, their brethren. And the Muslims, then, found no interdiction  in gathering round Al-Ka’bah in rings defying the wrathful and spiteful  looks of the leaders of Quraish who used to sit there.

Still in defence of their gods, and almost losing every hope of stopping the spread of the new religion, the leaders of Quraish took a step forward and decided to boycott  the Muslims, in an attempt to press upon them, that they might change their minds and hearts and go back to their fathers’ religion, or, at least, that they might be compliant in talking about their gods. But in vain. For two years, the Muslims had to undergo the hardships of this inhuman boycott. `Omar had to have his share of it, but nothing could be done to stop it. He, as well as all the Muslims, had to endure. What filled him with anguish was to see the Prophet, Allah’s Peace and Blessings he upon him, suffer as much as the whole Muslim community and even more. `Omar knew that the Prophet could have lived as comfortably and luxuriously as any king or emperor and even better, had he desired it. But Muhammad was the Messenger of Allah, and he had been chosen to spread out His message among blockheaded and hard-hearted people who were willing to sacrifice everything they had to stop the spread of that Message. `Omar knew all that, and yet he used to cry his eyes  out whenever he saw the Prophet leading such a hard life, void of all kinds of comfort and luxury enjoyed by all his enemies. `Omar never shed tears in his pre-Islamic days, but after his conversion, he was in the habit of bursting into tears  – as almost all true believers did – whenever he heard the words of Allah:

{إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِرَ اللّهُ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُهُ زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَاناً وَعَلَى رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ}  الأنفال2

“Truly, the believers are those whose hearts are scared at the mention of Allah, and when His verses are recited to them, they increase in Faith, and on their Lord they do rely.” (Al Anfal:8:3)

He would also weep very bitterly whenever he would hear the warning and threatening  verses of the Qur’an recited before of by him, be cause he learnt from the Prophet how to live always in awe from Allah.

Again, in his Pre-Islamic days, `Omar’s heart softened sometimes at certain circumstances: we have seen how he suppressed his fury and was softened greatly when he saw his sister’s face covered with blood on the day of the Great Event. After his conversion, his soft heart was such that he wept, and very bitterly, in most cases. This is why during his caliphate,  as we shall see later, he filled everybody with awe, and, at the same time, attracted everybody with his soft, kind and sympathetic heart. This mixture of awe and softness gave him the unique quality of a man who was firm without being violent, and lenient without being weak: another sign of the greatness of our man.

For seven years after his conversion, `Omar remained in Makkah, undertaking  the propagation of Islam, protecting the Muslims and stimulating  the abominable feelings of the disbelievers by doing all that he wanted to do in the course of propagation in public. All these great deeds were concluded with a wonderful action he took when he decided to emigrate to Madinah. He did not take his decision in secret, nor did he start his departure concealed under the guise  of darkness. He rather put on his sword, went to Al-Ka’bah where all the leaders of Quraish were seated as usual, performed the circumambulation seven times, then stopped, looked at his enemies and said:

“Misshapened are the faces: Let anyone who wants his mother to lose him, his son to be orphanized and his wife to be widowed meet me beyond that valley. I am emigrating to Madinah.” Nobody, of course dared to move a hand or leg. Very soon after, `Omar departed from Makkah, accompanied by Ayyash-ibn-Abi Rabi’ah, and both took their way to Madinah. The leaf of `Omar’s Makkan role in his life was then turned to give way to a new leaf of more and more brilliance  in the life of our great man, as well as the life of the whole Muslim community.