Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Umar Ibn Abd Al-Aziz


Most great leaders in history are remembered for the wars they fought in or the land and people whom they conquered. Only a few leaders who are known for the justice they implemented while they were in power and the reason for this is that most leaders do not rule with a clear just rule. Umar Ibn Abd Al-Aziz is known for his just rule because he came at a time when the people in charge lived in luxury and wore the finest clothes and had spectacular homes. Imagine a ruler who lived near palaces like the ones Saddam Hussein built yet he would not be recognized by his people due to the fact that his clothes were so worn out and that he walked among his own people.

When he was chosen as the leader of the Muslims, Umar is known to have said to the people that “If you find me at fault in word or action, guide me and stop me from doing it.”

Can we imagine a leader in the Middle East saying such a thing to his people? Can we visualize Husni Mubarak getting on the podium and telling his 70 million plus Muslim population that if he does not follow Allah then they should guide him? Not only will he not say such a thing, but you are in danger of being arrested in Egypt if the government does not like what you say. We are more than a thousand years away from the time that Umar ruled and while was the leader of the Muslims for only 3 years and never conquered any new land as his predecessors did, his remarkable achievements in reforming the Muslim state and his example of moderation, justice, and disregard for worldly pleasures make him a Muslim hero that will be remembered forever.

Umar’s great grandfather, the 2nd Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khatab, is known by Muslims to be a towering figure that struck fear into the enemies of Islam and even occasionally scared his own people. There is a story of a woman who was pregnant and was walking along a street when Umar Ibn Al-Khatab said something rather loud. His voice frightened the woman so much that she aborted her baby on the spot. The Umar who we are talking about, in comparison to his great grandfather, is like a more milder version who had a soft heart like our Abu Bakr Al-Sadiq and would cry whenever he was reminded about the punishment of Allah.

Umar II was known for was his genuine fear of Allah. It is said that he would spend every night reading the Quran and would break out crying so much that his wife had to attend to him in fear that he would pass out. On one occasion, a poor man came up to Umar II and said “I came to you out of poverty and I have nothing left. Allah will question you about me on the Day of Judgment.” Umar II could not believe what he had just heard and asked the man to repeat himself. After hearing what the man said a second time, he broke down crying until the floor he was standing on was soaking wet. He gave the man more than enough money than he needed including 100 dinars out of his own pocket.

We can only read about a man who embodied the justness and god-fearing personality that Allah commands us to be in the Quran. There is a hadith in Sahih Muslim that says that there are seven categories of people whom God will shelter under His shade on the Day when there will be no shade except God’s. One of these categories is the just leader. There is no doubt that Umar Ibn Abd Al-Aziz will have the largest shade on the Day of Judgment and will be in the company of the blessed Prophet Muhammad of whom he emulated by his actions and deeds. We can only hope that among us will soon be another Umar who will truly fear God and be fair to his people so that justice can roam the Earth and Muslims can deal with their problems in the right way.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Khalid Ibn Al Waleed


Khalid Ibn Al Waleed is an example of the spectacular courage showed by early Muslims when facing the enemy. The fact that he fought in over 100 battles and never lost one of them makes him, without a doubt, one of the most successful military commanders of all time. To be in the same category of legendary military leaders such as Alexander the Great, Julius Ceasar, and Napoleon is an incredible testament to the skills and abilities of Khaild Ibn Al-Waleed. But to be given the title "Saif Allah" (The Sword of Allah) puts him at the highest rank of hand-to-hand combatants in history.

His sword was given the blessing of the creator of the universe so there is no person could have walked away alive after fighting Khalid Ibn Al Waleed, not even the Dark Knight himself. He is the chief officer responsible for the Muslims temporary losing their one and only battle at Uhud. He would eventually embrace Islam and plead to the Prophet Muhammad to ask Allah for forgiveness for his past actions.

This was a man who feared no person and was disappointed that he did not die fighting on the battlefield. He was eagerly looking forward death because of his solid belief in Allah and was so relentless in the pursuit of his enemies; they thought he was a human tornado. He never let the Persians or the Romans rest when the battles took place and it is reported that he would go through multiple swords which would be broken over the heads of the enemies. His tactical genius was so overwhelming that the 2nd Caliph Umar suspected that Muslims began to believe victory depended upon Khalid.

The caliph Umar Ibn Al Khatab, who was actually a cousin of Khalid, removed him from his command position because there was tension between the authority of the Caliph and the popularity of Khalid. A. I. Akram reports in his book that the two wrestled together as teenagers and one time Khalid threw Umar on the floor so hard, he broke Umar Ibn al Khatab’s leg. The two would still be friends after the incident and Khalid would not harbor any negative feelings towards Umar after being reduced in rank or being removed from the Islamic army.

When Khalid was demoted in the command of the Islamic army, Abu Ubaida ibn al-Jarrah was appointed. Under this new leadership, the Muslims still obliterated their opponents with Khalid fighting only as a foot soldier. The Duke of Wellington once remarked that “Napoleon’s presence on the battlefield was worth 40,000 men.” It is not an exaggeration to say that Khalid ibn Walid’s presence was worth 100,000 men.

At the Battle of Firaz, the Muslim army under Khalid was 15,000 strong. Their opponents were the combined forces of the Byzantine and Sassanid Empire with tribes of Arab Christians helping them who altogether totaled 200,000 to 300,000 soldiers. Despite fighting an army ten times its size, the Muslim army blasted the Persians and Byzantines into the sea killing 50,000 of them in one day. The inferior forces of the Muslims had the equalizer of superior generalship from Khalid which allowed them to overcome numerical odds every time they fought a war. It was an immeasurable blessing from Allah that the Muslims had such a man fighting on their side.

After having led the destruction of two empires, Khalid would collapse in bed and show that he was only human. At the time he died, Khalid was in a near depression state because he would die lying down. He is quoted as saying:"After all my battles, my body is scarred with wounds everywhere. But here I am, dying in bed, as if I had never been in a war. May all the cowards not have a day's rest after my death." The cowards, who he was referring to, can only mean the enemies of the Muslims. Yet we know there are cowards among our own ranks who submit to the great Western powers in exchange for a few pleasures of this world. May Allah make the ranks of the Muslims strong and purify them from the weakness and cowardliness that lurks around us.

Friday, April 10, 2009

What is a Hero

What exactly qualifies a person to be a hero. One definition that has been used to define a hero is an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. By this definition a basketball player making a 3 point shot at the buzzer to win game 7 of an NBA finals is in the same category as a firefighter who risks his life to pull a child out of a burning home. They both are normal people who showed courage and did extraordinary things when they needed to. Yet we know that risking your life and risking a missed free throw are two completely different things. The point is that we define a hero based on different criteria.

The criteria that we will use to define a Muslim hero is one who showed exceptional courage for the cause of Islam. Who went out of their way to do unselfish things in the name of Islam. Who sacrificed themselves to ensure that other Muslims would be better off in the future. One does not necessarily need to have fought on the battlefield to be a Muslim hero, but those who have fought deserve to be in a category by themselves to ensure there is no unfair comparisons between them and those who showed courage in different ways. I will attempt to post as many Muslim heroes that I can using information already available and hopefully explaining and interpreting the actions of these heroes so that the Muslim youth of today will be able to read about these throwbacks and be inspired by them.