AL-FAROUQ OMAR IBNUL- KHATTAB

Before The Grand Event

 Our man is `Omar ibnul-Khattab, of a tribe called Bani `Adiy.
His father, Al-Khattab ibn Nufail, was not well-off, though he was well-known
for his violence and brutal nature. There is no doubt that `Omar inherited the
severity and violence of his father, and that had it not been for his adoption of
Islam, he might have lived among the people of his tribe, as his father had
done before, a man with a ruthless heart and a violence of character that could
never have been suppressed

Yet `Omar's life, in his Pre-Islamic days
was more or less the same as the lives of the youth about whom we read in the
Pre-Islamic poetry. He was fond of drinking, wrestling with his mates in the
market places and courting the pretty young ladies. He used to attend the
annual poetic contests at `Okaz market, listen to the recitals of their poets
and repeat the verses of the Pre-Islamic poets. As all the other idolaters of
his time, `Omar had made his own idol of soft dates.

But one day, as he was worshipping his
idol, he felt hungry, and found no harm in devouring his god at once, which
thing gives a true picture of the silly and trivial mentality of the
idol-worshippers in the Pre-Islamic days.

 `Omar was one of the very few who were instructed in reading
and writing in his childhood. This is why he was frequently chosen by his tribe
to represent them whenever there were any disputes between them and other
tribes. Whatever those disputes the mere presence of `Omar was a very
influential element in eliminating any difficulty and solving any problem.

That was `Omar ibnul-Khattab, the man of
extraordinary strenght, height, broad- shoulderedness thickness of hands and
feet; the man who forced the people to listen when he spoke, who always
hastened away when he walked, and who usually caused much pain when he struck.
That was `Omar who never felt scared of anything or anybody throughout his
life. It was not strange to see him facing the first Muslims with all the
violence and ruthlessness he had. There was a strong enmity between him and
Islam; the reason for this was that, among his people, he had been a man full
of power prudence zeal and dignity power to defend his people and their beliefs;
prudence to be always having watchful care of their interests; zeal to spend
his time and effort to keep them in union; and dignity to provide full respect
and prestige for himself and his people always and everywhere. With all these
honourable qualities, 'Omar had had to face any call that might have caused
disunion among his people, dispersing them, nullifying their aspirations
condemning their beliefs and satirizing their gods. No wonder, then, that
`Omar's violence inflicted the severest persecution and torture upon the first
Muslims. We have seen how he had inherited so much of his father's brutal and
violent nature. If we bear in mind that the most brutal and merciless enemy of
Islam, its Prophet and its first adherents, was `Amr ibn-Hisham, after wards
named "Abu-Jahl" by the Prophet and his companions, was `Omar's uncle
(his mother's brother), we can easily discern that `Omar's violence was the
outcome of what he had inherited from his father, and of the hideous
ruthlessness his uncle used to inflict upon the poor and weak Muslims of his
time.

And it was not
strange that `Omar's brutality and audacity had gone so far as to make him
think of killing the Prophet and establishing reunion among his people once
more. But such a daring idea had had to be checked a thousand times before it
rose up to the region of his conscious mind this had happened to `Omar. It had
never occurred to his mind that a grand event would take place very soon; and
it would take place as a flash of light at one of the brightest moments the
history of humanity has ever recorded.