A Committed Father, and Obedient Children One night Umar bn AlKhattab called all his children and addressed them thus: “I know you do not know why I have called upon you this night. Some of you may be thinking: our father is now Ameerul Mumineen and we are his children. So, when any of you goes about his business, he would expect people to give him priority. I want you to know that your father used to tend to his father’s camels, and that his father used to ill-treat him and beat him up. Your father used to collect firewoodfor his aunts and they would give him a handful of dates. Our clan, Adiy, were not of any distinction in Quraysh. They were well below other clans such as Abd Manaf, Makhzoom, and Jumah. God Has elevated us by Islam and by submission to Him alone. People will now look at you just as bird looks at meat. If you come to grab it, they will grab with you, and if you refrain, they refrain. If Iissue an order prohibiting something on people, then you must be the first to refrain from it. By God, if any one of you is brought to me, having done what I have ordered people to refrain, I will doublehis punishment because of his relation to me. Until one of you will say: how I wish our father has not assumed the leadership of the Muslim state, so that we would be like any other person. Do you understand what I have said?” They all answered, “Yes.”
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:40:52 +0000