Admirable Manner with his Fellow Companions and his SubjectsBoldness of Hazrat Umar's 
Subjects
In spite of his being such a brave and awesome statesman and sovereign, the behaviour of Hazrat Umar ^ had encouraged the people to speak so freely, candidly and bravely before him. This can be estimated only by looking at various historical incidents.
Accordingly, after the conquest of Iraq most of the august men had married
Christian women, because there is permission to wed scripturary women.
Hazrat Umar
wrote to Hazrat Huzaifa al Yamani
that he disapproved of such things. The latter replied: "Is this your personal
opinion or a legal order"? (Shari) Hazrat Umar
wrote that it was his personal opinion. Hazrat Huzaifa
wrote back: "To follow your personal opinion is not incumbent upon us.”
A Bedouin’s Candidness
A similar incident is reported of a Bedouin. When a severe famine occurred
in Arabia during the Farouqi regime, the great Farouq's condition became
strange: as long as the famine lasted he did not eat mutton, fish, ghee
or any other delicious thing. Fearfully he used to invoke. "0 Allah! Destroy
not Mohammed’s 
ummah as a punishment of my evil deeds!”
The statement of Hazrat Umar's
slave, Aslam, is from the worries that exercised Hazrat Umar' s mind during
the period of famine, it appeared that if the famine did not come to an
end he would die of this sorrow, although he had made matchless arrangements
for reducing the rigours of famine.
During that spell of famine came a Bedouin and he recited the following
verses before him, "O Umar! If there is pleasure, it is the pleasure of
Paradise. Clothe my daughters and their mother. By Allah! You'll have to
do this". Harrat Umar
said: "What will happen if I don't do as you say? The Bedouin said: -"You'll
be questioned regarding me on the Day of Judgement and you will be flabbergasted.
Then you'll have to go either towards Hell or towards Paradise".
Hearing this, Hazrat Umar
wept so much that his auspicious beard was drenched in tears. Then he said
to his slave, ''Give my shirt to him for I have no other thing with me
at present:'
Farouq-e A'zam, the Commander of the Faithful, possessed such an awesome personality and was so valiant and brave that great monarchs, Caesar and Khosroe used to tremble on hearing his name, but he was so kind-hearted that on seeing such persons in distress his heart used to melt and accusing himself for their distress he used to weep profusely.
An example of Hazrat Umar's
Kindness and Wisdom
Once he was patrolling at night. A woman, sitting on the terrace, was reciting some verses. One couplet meant:
"The night is dark and goes on lengthening and my husband is not near me with whom I may play".
Her husband had gone for jihad and, love-torn, she was singing such
painful couplets. Hazrat Umar
was very much aggrieved. He remarked: "I have inflicted a great severity
on the women of Arabia. Then he came to Hairat Hafsa (his daughter) and
asked her as to how many days a woman could live without her husband. She
said: "Four months:' Next morning he issued an order that no Solider should
live away from home for more than four months.
His Sorrow over the Condition of A Decrepit Man
Once he was feeding some men. He saw that a man was eating with his
left hand. He went to him and asked him to eat with the right hand. The
man said that he had lost his right hand in the Battle of Muta. This melted
Hazrat Umar's
heart. He sat down near him and began to cry and said: "Alas! Who help’s
you to make ablution? Who washes your head and who clothes you"? He then
appointed a servant for him and himself provided for him all the necessary
things i.e. Home help in today’s welfare state.
In short, Hazrat Umar Farouq
throughout his life practised the prophetic sunnah and established an example
and a procedure for the ummah to bring the prophetic pattern into practice,
implying that this is called true following and consummate conformance.
Besides this, orally too he used to be very careful in insisting upon
the common run of Muslims generally and the commanders and generals of
the army particularly that they should at no moment be away from submission
to the Holy Prophet
and that they always keep this rope around their necks.
Insistence upon the Commanders of the Army to Obey the Apostle
Accordingly, when he appointed Hazrat S'ad bin Abi Waqqas
who is reckoned amongst the high-ranking Companions of the Chief and Pride
of the Two Worlds
and who as a relative was also the Prophet
maternal-uncle, as the commander of the army for dispatch to Iraq, as advise
he told him: -"O Sa'd! May this thing, with regard to Allah, not deceive
you that you are called the Holy Prophet's
maternal-uncle and Companion. Undoubtedly, Allah Most High does not efface
evil with evil but removes evils through good deeds. Indubitably, there
is no relation between Allah and anyone; if there is any relation and connection,
it is of obedience.
The noble and the ignoble among the people are all equal unto Allah's
sight. Allah is the Lord of all of them and all are His slaves; they have
had superiority over each other by reason of their individual abstinence,
and those ranks that are with Allah they can be achieved by obedience.
Be careful of that which the Holy Prophet
remained constant. The Prophet
came and passed away, leaving us behind. Grasp his command as necessary,
for that command is the true command. This is my only advice. Save yourself
from leaving it. If you leave it and show disinclination towards it, your
deeds will be wasted and you will become one of those people who are involved
in loss.'
Similarly he once said, "Allah Most Holy sent the Holy Prophet
on a mission. We people confirmed in him and then conformed to him. He
demonstrated by practice upon every thing which Allah Most High ordered
him to do. He
continuously gave alms to the poor until Allah Most High sent death to
him in this condition. Then Hazrat Abu Bakr became his khalifa (successor).
He continued to act upon the Holy Prophets
Sunnahs until Allah Most High sent death to him and then made me khalifa.”
