‘Umar Al-Farooq, radhiyallaahu ‘anhu

~ The Mountain of Justice~

“O Allaah, I am tough, please make me soft. O Allaah, I am weak, please make me strong. O Allaah, I am miserly, please make me generous.”

-- ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him).

Conquest: As Shams (Dimishq and Bayt Al Maqdis)

• Leaders:
• ‘Amr ibn Al ‘Aas
• Shahrabeel
• These leaders were sent to Jordan and Syria
• As Shams was conquered one month after Al Qaadisiyya
• The people surrended and said, “We will only give the key of the palace to the Khalifah.”
• Therefore, ‘Umar Ibn Al Khattab went all the way from Madinah to Jerusalem to receive the key from the leader of the people of Jerusalem.
• When ‘Umar reached Jerusalem, the people recognized his intelligence and generosity and fell in love with him.
• They then gave him the key and requested to bring him around Jerusalem.
• This event proved the prophet hood of Rasulullah (peace and blessing be upon him), when he said:
• “In the Name of Allah, Allah is Great, the keys of Ash-Sham are mine. I swear by Allah, I can see its palaces at the moment;” on the second strike he said: “Allah is Great, Persia is mine, I swear by Allah, I can now see the white palace of Madaain.” For the third time he struck the rock saying, “Allah is Great, I have been given the keys of Yemen, I swear by Allah, I can see the gates of San’a while I am in my place.” Witnessed by Al Baraa’ on the Day of the Battle of the Trench (Al Khandaq)
• They then took him to visit the Church of Qiyama and the noon prayer was due at that time.
• The Bishop (one of the people who took ‘Umar for the tour) then asked if he could offer his prayer at the church, being a house of Allah too.
• ‘Umar politely declined the offer because he was worried that the Muslims later on may take it as a commendable tradition, and end up expelling the Christians from their churches.
• This is a violation to the Pledge of Security the muslims had concluded with them (since the non-muslims were paying jizyah to the muslims, the muslims were obliged to provide security to the non-muslims)
• This episode is indeed a memorable one in history, as it brings into the spotlight one of the most significant features of Islam, namely tolerance.
• ‘Umar then went a few feet from the church and prayed there. Later on a masjeed was built there and was named after his name: Masjeed ‘Umar.

Conquest of Misr (Egypt)

• ‘Amr ibn Al ‘Aas then continued on his plan to conquered Egypt.
• He brought with him 10,000 muslims armies which was small in number compared to the Byzantine armies.
• Nevertheless, the muslims armies brought with them their steadfastness in Islam which had helped them tremendously against the Byzantine armies.
• Al Iskandariah (Alexandria) was conquered by ‘Amr ibn Al ‘Aas, it was under siege within 5 months before the muslims armies could successfully conquered it.
• Before Al Iskandariah was conquered, Az Zubayr and Ibn Az Zubayr were sent as cavalry (troops trained to fight on horseback).
• The muslims armies took two years to conquer Egypt
• ‘Umar then said, “The delay of this conquest is for the deed that they have committed.”
• Usually, if victory had not come, the muslims would look back at what sins they had committed.
• ‘Umar then brought fresh leadership just like what the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) did at the Battle of Khaybar.
• The leadership was given to ‘Ubadah ibn Samit.
• On the day of Jum’ah, they conquered Al Iskandariah (21 Hijrah).
• Al Iskandariah was conquered many times by the muslims armies.
• The person came to tell ‘Umar about the conquest of Iskandariah after Qaylulah (sleeping before dzhur or between dzhur and ‘asr). Umar then asked, “why did not your come earlier?”
• The man said, “I am afraid if you are sleeping.”
• ‘Umar said, “if I sleep during the day, my flock will be lost. If I sleep at night, I’ll lose myself. So, how can I sleep between this two, O Mu’awiyah ibn Khadij?”
• When ‘Amr conquered Egypt, he wanted to make Iskandariah to be the capital.
• ‘Umar asked him, “is Iskandariah opposite the river?”
• ‘Amr said, “yes.”
• ‘Umar disagreed because of the water crossing; it’s harder to make the place across the mainland to be the capital of a country.
• Then, Al Fustaad became the capital of Egypt.