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Humility and Righteousness
From the life of Hazrat Umar (ra) bin Khattab
From the life of Hazrat Umar (ra) bin Khattab
Hazrat Umar’s (ra) level of humility and righteousness can be gauged from the following incident:
Hazrat Urwah (ra) bin Zubair narrates that he saw Umar (ra) bin al-Khattab carrying a waterskin on his shoulder. Upon this, he submitted, “O Leader of the Faithful! This does not behove you.” Hazrat Umar (ra) stated, “When the various delegations from different countries arrived whilst demonstrating their utmost obedience, a sense of self-importance developed in my heart. Thus, in order to remove this feeling from me, I decided to carry this waterskin.”
(Sirat Umar (ra) bin al-Khattab, Muhammad al-Salabi, p. 122, Dar al-Ma‘rifah, Beirut, Lebanon, 2007)
Hazrat Yahya (ra) bin Abdi Al-Rahman bin Hatib relates from his father that they were once returning from Mecca in the company of Hazrat Umar (ra) and upon reaching the valleys of Dhajnan, they stopped. Dhajnan is the name of a place which is situated about 25 miles from Mecca. He further narrates that Hazrat Umar (ra) then stated, “Upon seeing this place I can still recall the time when I would tend to the camels of my father, Khattab. He was a man of a very stern disposition. I would take the camels laden with sticks and thereafter I would take them with grass placed upon them. However, today my condition is such that people travel far and wide in my land and there is no one above me.”
In other words, I am a ruler of a vast and expansive land in which people travel a great distance and come and meet me and also there is no other ruler in this world who rules over me. He then recited the following couplet:
لَا شَيْءَ فِيْمَا تَرَى إِلَّا بَشَاشَتَهُ يَبْقَى الْإِلَهُ وَيُوْدِي الْمِالُ وَالْوَلَدُ
“Whatever you can see has no reality to it apart from being a temporary source of joy. One’s wealth and progeny will come to an end and it is only God Who lives forever.”
(Ibn Saad, Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Vol. 3, Umar (ra) bin al-Khattab [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 1990], p. 202) (Fath al-Bari, Vol. 2, p. 144, Qadimi Kutun Khana, Aram Bagh, Karachi)