"O God! Verily I am rough in temper, therefore soften me; and verily I am weak, therefore strengthen me; and verily I am miserly, therefore make me generous".
With these poorly chosen words, Umar began his rule which was to last for 10 years and six months.
Only one year after he came to power Umar made new religious laws.
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Umar was once preaching from the pulpit when Imam Husain (A), who was then only a young boy, stood up and told him,
"Come down from the pulpit of my father".
Umar admitted,
"It is the pulpit of your father, not the pulpit of my father, but who told you to say this?"
Imam Ali (A) who was present, rose and said
"By Allah! No one told him what to say".
During the reign of Umar, the boundaries of the Muslim territories were expanded greatly and many foreign lands were conquered. These included Syria, Jordan, Jerusalem, Egypt and Persia.
Umar placed ill-chosen governors in many of these new lands. In particular, he was responsible for the growth of power of Muawiya bin Abu Sufyan in Syria.
By initially placing Muawiya's brother Yazid in power, Umar was the originator of the massacre in Kerbala which took place at the orders of Muawiya's evil son Yazid.
Umar's knowledge of the Holy Qur'an was weak. He used to make rounds in the streets of Madina at night with a whip in his hand. Once he passed a house where he heard someone singing. He jumped over the back wall and found a man and woman drinking wine. He shouted in anger,
"O enemies of God, did you think your sin would pass unnoticed?"
The man replied,
"O Umar, if I am guilty of one sin, then you are guilty of three wrong acts according to the Holy Qur'an".
Umar could not believe his ears and challenged the man to prove his words. The man quoted three verses of the Holy Qur'an:
1. O you who believe, avoid much suspicion ... and do not spy. Hujuraat, 49 : 12 (Part)
2. ...It is not good that you should enter your houses from behind but the righteous one is he who guards himself against evil and enters the houses by the doors... Baqarah, 2 : 189 (Part)
3. O you who believe, do not enter houses other than your own houses until you have asked for permission and greeted those within... Nur 24 : 27 (Part)
On hearing this Umar was ashamed of his ignorance of the Holy Qur'an and asked for forgiveness for the intrusion. After the man promised not to touch wine again, Umar left. Many such incidents occurred and Umar was embarrassed time and time again by his poor command of the verses of the Holy Qur'an. It is a wonder that he still thought himself fit to rule the Muslims!
Numerous incidents have been noted in history where Umar made hasty and incorrect decisions which were changed by the presence and intervention of Imam Ali (A).
Once Umar ordered that a mad woman who had been found guilty of adultery should be whipped as per the prescribed punishment. As the poor woman was being dragged along on the way to be flogged, Imam Ali (A) passed by and asked what was going on. When he was informed of the situation he said,
"Do you not know that the Holy Prophet (S) has said that the order of punishment should be withheld from a mad person till they recover, because they are not in control of their actions".
Umar then ordered the woman to be released. Such incidents happened so many times that Umar used to say,
"If it was not for Ali, Umar would have been destroyed".
Umar had a rule that non-Arabs were not allowed to enter Madina. However, he relaxed the rule for one man only at the request of his friend Mughira bin Sho'iba, the governor of Kufa. The man in question was called Abu Lulu. He was not an Arab, but he was a good carpenter, blacksmith and engraver.
Abu Lulu was heavily taxed for the privilege of residing in Madina and asked Umar to increase his allowance. Umar refused and instead commissioned him to build a windmill for grinding grain.
Abu Lulu promised him that he would build him such a windmill that people would always talk about it. The way he said it made Umar wonder whether he was being threatened and his fears proved correct.
A few days later Abu Lulu ambushed Umar in the early hours of the morning and stabbed him in the stomach three times with a double-bladed dagger. One of these wounds was fatal and Umar died three days later on 26th Zilhaj at the age of 63 years.
The death of the man who was responsible for hurting the feelings of Bibi Fatima (A), when he tore her deed of ownership of Fadak, is celebrated as 'Eide Zahra. May the curse of Allah be on Umar al-Khattab for all time.