Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): 10 Unique Virtues | The Firsts with Dr. Omar Suleiman

and i think that all of you can appreciate the challenge of trying to cover the life of um and how to even choose where to start because with um while he is not superior to abu bakr sadiq we should say that from the very beginning that from our creed we understand that there is no person that is better after the prophet salla sallam than abu bakr sadiq but the life of um particularly is a lot deeper than the life of abu bakr as-siddiq because um lasted a little over a decade whereas of course his khilafah was only a little over two years most of which was solidifying and and holding everything down after the death of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam rather than initiating a system of what life would look like after the death of the prophet alaihi wasallam for the muslims whereas in the case of um you have the genius of the ethics of islam and what it looks like to have a just ruler in place for a long time and taking everything that he learned from the prophet saws and implementing it in the most beautiful and in the best of ways so here's what we're going to do tonight with tonight will be the most instructive of the lectures on because i want us to focus on 10 virtues of um some of which are unique to him and some of which he simply excels in they are ethics in islam virtues in islam that he implements in the best of ways in the most beautiful of ways and even the ones that are unique to him there is a reason why they are unique to him and we can derive lessons from that inshallah so if you're a note taker this is your lecture to take notes from insha'allah and then next week with we will talk about his particularly as a shepherd as a leader and we'll also talk about his death and his legacy next week so tonight with the night we're looking through 10 things that are unique to him where we can take some instruction from for ourselves the first thing that i'll mention in this regard because it's not one of the virtues is simply that he is an answer to the dua of the prophet there is a reason why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam wanted um to become muslims so bad he saw something in him he saw many things in him and it can truly be said that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has customized this one man for his sake and for the sake of islam and that there is not a single person that you will find after the prophet saws of course because we mention his father his virtue always but just a single person from whom so much so much good can possibly stem so the very first thing that i'll start off with is being divinely inspired to truth divinely inspired to truth this is a notion in islam that's very interesting intuition do we believe in intuition do we believe in righteous intuition that a person starts to have righteous inclinations and hunches yes and to put that in perspective we all have our fitrah right so allah has created us innately good and the fitrah guides us towards tauhee towards monotheism towards mercy towards justice will be distinguished by the fitra is innate within all of us the more sincere we are with our intentions the closer we become to our fitrah the more that our natural actions our intuitions our views start to line up with what allah subhanahu ta'ala has intended for us okay so the more truthful we are in our talab in our seeking of the more our intuition becomes sound as well and it starts to line up with what allah has intended for us now does this mean that intuition ever overcomes revelation no but subhanallah the most uh the most profound example of that was one of the earliest biographies that we studied which was zade bin ahmed the uncle of umar may allah subhanahu we pleased with them both zade of course who died before the prophet saw some received revelation but without knowing anything of the quran without even living to witness it already was an advocate for tauheed for monotheism already was stopping people from burying their daughters alive already took exception with some of the economic injustices that he was witnessing already you know had an aversion to alcohol and find it found it to be unholy because his intuition was sound because he was so sincere in his pursuit of his own fitrah of his own goodness no person that you will find like um in this regard that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would praise over and over and over again first we start off with the fact that this is a dua this was a supplication from um we all have heard the dura where we ask allah subhanahu wa allah show me the truth as truth i want to see the truth i'm not afraid of the truth you know sometimes a person says i wish you wouldn't have told me that this was haram or did you have to ask or did you even have to look into it it's like when when something's a little bit doubtful like please don't ask because i don't want to know if it's haram i know a lot of you are thinking about certain restaurants in your heads right now i don't want to know if it's haram because if it's haram or if there's an ingredient in it that i can't eat that i'm not going to be able to enjoy my food um who is saying ya allah show me truth as truth i want to see the truth for what it is subhanallah and then grant me grant me the ability to follow it so don't just show it to me then grant me success in following it and i want to see falsehood for what it is i don't want to hide from it i don't care what the consequences of the truth are and what falsehood is show me what falsehood is and then grant me the success to stay away from it this is why the prophet salallahu said in another authentic hadith there were people in the nations that came before you that were spoken to by who by the angels spoken to by the angels now let's not get back into the whole angel series but there's a shaytan that does waswasa right there are also angels that prompt you and when a person is so determined to have their nafs be purified their self be purified it's like they're hearing the angels that are speaking to them not like in a conversational way but they are prompting them you know when we say muhaddith that someone that speaks hadith is spoken to the prophet saw islam said there were these special people in the nations that came before you and in one narration the prophet saw some specified bani israel people that were so righteous that the angels would speak to them and the prophet saws if there is anyone in my ummah that's like that it's um like he is spoken to by the angels the rudimat comments on this as well again this is an instructive lecture now in terms of the virtues and the lessons that the reward of jud the reward of striving is not just al-jaza it's not just the reward but it's before that then we will reward them to the best of what they used to do so the guidance that allah gives a person is actually a reward in and of itself for their mujahada for their striving and so um would strive so much against his nafs so much against himself that it was like he was listening to the angels talking to him at that point subhanallah guiding him and prompting him naturally towards goodness and um who described this in an authentic narration from him he said in one of his was those amongst you who have succeeded are those hadith he has succeeded amongst you who has protected himself from hawa from desire from which is greed which is uh having high hopes in this world right hawa is your empty desires tama is greed and the third thing is anger he said if a person is protected from these three things then that person will be a successful person and he said there is no good in anything like there is in truthful speech to be truthful when you speak to be truthful when you pursue to be truthful when you ask there is something about um about his honesty that is endearing right sometimes you know when someone is just so honest that you know you wish like you didn't have to say it at that moment i'll give you one of those examples because there are many of them with the prophet saws he was just too honest right he hears the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam say that no one of you truly believes until he loves me more than everything including his family his wealth and even himself um could have just kept quiet there but he said wait a minute he said he actually was doing the calculations he said i love you more than my wealth you care about my money and i love you more than my family he loves his family but i love you more than my family but he said but i'm not sure that i can really honestly say that i love you more than myself yet subhanallah look how hon like why put yourself in that situation keep it to yourself right but he's too honest so he's saying to the prophet saw i said wait a minute i don't know if i love you more than myself and the prophet says i'm repeated until i am more beloved to you than your own self who went home and he played out all of these scenarios in his head amongst them you know when someone says i would die for you that's a nice expression except when the bullet is coming your way may allah protect us all and instead of jumping in front you're out the door um started to play in his head the scenarios if an arrow was coming to the prophet saws would i go in front of him or would i would i run away then he played in his head he said am i happier when allah bestows something upon me or when allah bestows something upon his prophet's life so subhanallah in his honesty he played through all of those things and he came to rasulallah the next day and he said i swear by allah that you are more beloved to me than myself and the prophet saws smiled and he said now you're there so his honesty subhan allah was so much that he would speak it even in situations that would put him in a in a detrimental place or in a place that might be a little bit awkward because of his honesty so that's the first thing divinely inspired towards the truth muhammad and that is why you have the narration where the prophet saws if there was to be a prophet after me it would have been um and the scholars that authenticated or that view that hadith is authentic they explained they said guidance to the truth and his ability after that guidance what he would do after he knew something was true was distinguishing about him and that is why he is the one who distinguishes between truth and falsehood he sorts it out and then he exerts himself in truth and then he eliminates falsehood that's how he is so he is a person who is muhaddat who is spoken to the second virtue of um which is building upon that is that the quran agreed with um on multiple occasions omar preceded revelation with many of his opinions allah on multiple occasions one of them we covered in the story of saud the ayat of hijab the verses of hijab the most famous one is in regards to the prohibition of alcohol wine remember last week we spoke about this no one loved wine more than omar right he literally only went to the kaaba before islam he only went to the kaaba because he couldn't find his drinking buddies that night that was the hobby of um was to get together with his buddies and to drink so when people are thinking i hope i don't find out that it's haram right right i don't want to know that it's haram or don't don't you know don't make it obvious to me so sincere in his pursuit of allah that he would ask allah in his make things clear to us in regards to alcohol now by the way in omar's opinion who thought that alcohol should be prohibited even though it was something that he enjoyed okay now realize the sahaba those that used to drink were drinking even after the hijra to medina because it wasn't prohibited until a few years after the hijra to medina in fact after they won the battle of badr hamza of the allahu ta'ala drunk wine after they won the battle of badr before the prohibition came famous incident right this was something that was known to them and he was asking allah oh allah make it clear to us and he was asking allah to prohibit it first the prohibition came what do not come to the prayer while you're intoxicated no drinking when you're coming to salah no drinking when you're coming to salaam then eventually the prohibition came down of alcohol altogether and that was from the from the intuition of um as well that the revelation agreed with um when it came to the captives of badr very famous incident the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam as we know he showed mercy to the captives of badr now mercy is a good thing and this is the characteristic the islam however though it is a noble quality of islam the prophet salallahu wasallam was not yet in a position of power where letting those captives of badr go would not put the prophet saw some in the community in a bad situation why because what did they do they went back to mecca they got their strength back and they came back for uh right so they were not an honorable people they were not people that would abide by the contract that they would not fight the prophet saws anymore they were not a people that would appreciate the grace and the mercy that was shown to them and the prophet saw some was in a very vulnerable place but the prophet saws he loved to show mercy he loved to show mercy and allah is more merciful than the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he didn't want to fight these people in the first place said fighting was prescribed for you and you hate it right but after they fought the prophet salallahu was lenient now the prophet saws showed them leniency and let them go too quick advocated for a sterner approach not to kill them but a sterner approach with the captives to hold them to deter them and he comes in and he sees the prophet saws both of them were crying and um he said tell me why you're crying so that i can cry too and you know i want to participate in this crying visa video so whatever it is either it'll make me cry or i'll make myself cry but i want to cry with you guys too everything was rasulallah saw abu bakr and um right the prophet saw some would say abu bakr and um did this ayah beckett and umar saw this and it turned out that the verse came down where allah subhanahu ta'ala sent down revelation that agreed with the opinion of um another time um what uh that that i saw ibrahim and i told rasulallah if you would take ibrahim as a place of prayer subhanallah that was um he just said ibrahim islam our father who built this kaaba if only he would take his place as a muslim as a place of prayer soon after allah another situation again the prophet saw son's mercy abdullah the man who sought to undermine the prophet salam from within for the entire state of madinah try to crumble the society of the prophets by some from within put the prophet saws in a vulnerable place over and over and over again try to hurt him tried to unseat him plotted with the enemies from outside and inside i mean abdullah nawab in sarul was always plotting against the prophet saw he never took a break never took a break and the entire time the prophet saw son was in medina and when he dies what did the prophet saw some do the prophet's my son not only prayed janaz on him rasulullah saw salam honored the request of his son to wrap him in his own garment something the prophet salaam only did for hamza allahu this was so dear to the heart of the prophet saws he saw the son who was a righteous man abdullah son abdullah was the sahaba and he he knew who his father was he knew what his father had done so he's looking for anything to give him some rahmah some mercy so the prophet saws mercy to the world he takes off his garments and the prophet saw some shrouds abdullah no baby the head of the hypocrites in his own garment to lead salaam in um who is trying to stop the prophet saws from leading the salah why was it because he hated him no um was afraid that this would send a signal to the munafiqueen that they have a chance continue in your hypocrisy you have a chance like if at the end of this rasool allah says so merciful that he's going to pray on you despite everything you're doing to harm him then they'll think they have a chance allah subhanahu ta'ala revealed the verse in surah verses from verse 80 to 84 that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told the prophet saws not to pray upon them and this is of course the fick of this the jurisprudence of this is that you know that there are people that might commit major sins and one of the ways that a person can deter from a major sin is that the imam or someone who is known to lead the salah would abstain from the salah in this situation and this is of course debatable the point is to deter people from you know the sin that is committed so from their hypocrisy so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in regards to um over and over and over again verses that agreed with the opinion of um subhanallah this relationship with the quran by the way is one where um also saw the importance of the preservation of the quran in written form as its mushaf especially once muslim and kadab started to kill the hephaeth when the father were being murdered when those who memorized the quran were being murdered the quran was gathered in the house of the allahu ta'ala and um wanted that the quran be gathered in copies so that no one would be able to claim that it's not preserved so that no one so that if all the hepath were killed the quran is protected now obviously allah is the one who preserves but this is from his wisdom on the part that we do and he pushed abu bakr allah until allah opened my heart to it and i saw what umar was trying to say i saw things the way um now usually we're accustomed to the opposite of the allah things exactly the way the prophet saw some cease things who follow suit right and this is from the humility of abu bakr al sadiq also to recognize that the truth is with umar in this regard he has a point here he has a point here and so the commissioning of zeid from the collection of hafsah though it was memorized by multiple companions at that point comes from the pushing the insistence of um this is the second thing which is the way the quran would agree with him the third thing and this is a really blessed category there is no person who the prophet saws had more dreams about than um subhanallah no person who the prophet saw some would see dreams about more than um and there are several dreams and i'll go through them insha'allah the first one probably the most famous of them the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said so this category three is virtues the prophet's dreams about him he said to nasa's the people displayed before me and i want you to ask yourself if i was in the dream of the prophet saws where would i be okay rasulallah says some people had these shirts that only covered a part of their chest some of them had garments that went down to their knees some below that so basically people are in front of the prophet saw islam he's seeing his ummah and while he's looking at his ummah he's seeing that everyone has a different shirt length okay and he said while i was watching that strange sight subhanallah he said um who walked in front of me and he had this long garment that he was dragging um a garment that he is dragging they said oh messenger of allah how did you interpret that dream remember the dreams of the prophet saws revelation what was the answer of the prophet saws he said ad-din religion that is his commitment to the deen that's what the aramaic mentioned at the way a person holds on to the deen to take what we have given you with strength that um commitment to the deen was represented in that garment now you think of the day of judgment where everyone is standing under the sun and people sweat in different levels if you were in the dream of the prophet saws how long would your shirt be this is one narration about um another narration which one of you just alluded to that rasool allah said i saw in a dream that i had this cup of milk and i was drinking from this milk and then the milk started to flow out of my arm out of my fingers so rasulallah seeing milk flowing out of his fingers to where the prophet saw some said it even was coming through his nails so like the milk is flowing abundantly from his hands and um was catching the milk and um who was drinking from that milk they said how did you interpret that o messenger of allah he said knowledge that the knowledge of um it was like it was flowing through the hands of the saw some of the fingers of the prophet saws he was so eager so eager to catch everything he could hear every word from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam subhanallah you know in medina there's one narration about um which is very interesting when we talk about uh particularly circles of knowledge okay that um had a neighbor that was from the ansar that if he could not be around the prophet saws he would assign that neighbor to go be with the prophet salaam to basically tell him everything that he missed that was the eagerness of um to capture every single bit of knowledge that he could from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam another dream rasulullah i'll read this only in english because it's a longer dream rasulullah some said while i was sleeping i saw myself at this well and i had this bucket so i was pulling out of the well as much as allah subhanahu wa had willed for me to pull out of this well so then i handed the pail or the bucket to abu bakr allah and he said abu bakr allah pulled some of it but he said there was a life there was a weakness in his may polling forgive him for that weakness now by the way this is not sinfulness this is what the uttama are referring to the time the khilafah the the succession of abu bakr to the prophet saw islam that abu bakr would make any mistakes all the allah was their weakness no he's talking about the dream slice on the time that he had it was a short time that abu bakr al-dillah who pulled what he could from that well to follow after the prophet saws in them then rasulallah saw salaam said um who took over the bucket and rasulallah said i never saw a person stronger than him in performing that work in pulling from that well rasulallah saw in his dream i watched pull from the well until every single person drank to their fill and even the animals had knelt down so that they could drink from it as well now what's one of the things that you will learn about um his justice even reached the animals subhanallah so the water that um was pulling now by the way what is water in a dream it's it's guidance right allah refers to it as revelation so the the goodness that comes from the goodness that comes from that water the fourth one is a funny one subhanallah it's funny but it's also beautiful rasulullah saw him says while i was looking at al-jannah he said i heard the footsteps of bilal and the prophet saws also felt the presence of um who one day we will talk about so the prophet saws is aware of bilal and um may allah be pleased with them then the prophet saws said i saw this beautiful palace and he said that there was a woman that was doing wudu on the side of the palace and the prophet saws said the palace was so beautiful he thought it was his subhanallah rasulullah is seeing a palace in jannah and it is so beautiful rasulullah said i thought it was mine so i asked is that for me is that palace for me and jibril said rather that is for um so the prophet salallahu so i quickly went away from that palace but even the prophet saws knows the rira of um that he was an honorable man and i didn't want to offend the allah and you imagine the prophet saw i said i'm saying that i'm looking at his palace in jannah and i saw that there was a woman on the side of the palace doing and i realized that's house as soon as jibril islam told the prophet salallahu this is for i um turned away because i remembered now if you're sitting in this gathering when the prophet salaam is narrating this what are you thinking like wow that's my palace in jannah can i see it ya rasulullah what color was the was the exterior you know what was the woman's name what was the river like like he could have asked all these questions right he could have taken the moment to like smile like think about the the bragging rights because rasulallah is narrating this dream after fajr in his masjid and omar is sitting right in front of him right think about the the boasting rights you have on the sahaba but what did the sahaba say um started to cry what is he crying about he said may my mother and father be sacrificed for you o messenger of allah you feared my jealousy would i be jealous with you ya rasulullah like i made you uncomfortable in jannah looking at my palace how beautiful is that sincerity that's where his mind and his heart went like ya rasulullah wait a minute you know you want me to have here with you ya rasulullah no i would never have with you no like how could i do that to you in jannah that was the immediate reaction of um which again subhanallah shows you his beauty his sincerity in that regard so this is the third thing that we take the third virtue which is specific to um there is no companion about whom the prophet saw islam had so many dreams always dreams about his his goodness and about what he has in the hereafter and subhanallah with all that the man fears allah as if he is a person who is not going to be granted jannah the fourth thing the shaitaan's fleeing away from the allah this is a famous narration one time and he had some women from quraish that were speaking to him which means they were asking for more now some of the sahabah they said that the prophet sallam or some of the commentators they said that the prophet saws was being asked from these women uh something of more in terms of uh you know some expenses or something right they were asking for something that was material in its nature from the prophet's life okay now the problem was okay their voices were louder than his voice prophet salla islam was was shy he was modest he would sit with the women of the community and they were speaking in a louder voice than his and then once they heard that um was outside they all went and they hid behind the curtains of the house so um asked permission to come in the women that were sitting with the prophet saws a minute ago that were raising their voices in the presence of the messenger they were hiding right so um this is our beloved one islam he's laughing at the situation what he just witnessed that the women hid from um i know after just a minute ago they were talking to him they were asking for more their voices were getting louder with the prophet saw some when um came they all hid omar has no idea what's going on he walks in and he sees the prophet's license i'm laughing so um may allah keep you laughing on messenger of allah may allah always keep you happy why are you laughing so the prophet saws said yeah omar i'm laughing because there were women that were sitting here just now before you came in and they had no problem raising their voices when i was sitting with them but when you came in they all went and they started to hide so um he looks out and he he calls out to them what does he say you enemies of yourselves enemies of yourselves you have hebra with umar and not with the prophet salaam you have all like what is wrong with you so one of them calls back out to um and says because you are harsher and harder harder than the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam so they they called back out to um and fought back when he made that comment now by the way subhanallah these are the worst two qualities that a person can have right though literally the same two words that allah says to the prophet sallam if you were harsh hard-hearted they would have left they would have fled from you so um says wait a minute really am i am i is this true so now he's concerned one moment he's you know he's advocating for the prophet saws the next moment he's he's afraid so he looks to the prophet saws who is laughing at the situation and he never lies whether he is joking whether he is sad the prophet saws only speaks the truth he says he said i swear by the one and whose hand is my soul. i swear by the one in whose hands is my soul never sees you taking a path except that he takes another path shapon will not even be on the same street as you that's powerful shaitaan does not want to be anywhere near you o right so what the prophet saws is subhanallah and this is beautiful that rasulallah saw some insult anyone in this process did he make anyone feel bad no subhanallah but he's comforting umar and giving him a glad tidings that you're not fav you're not harsh-hearted or or a person who is in a way that is not praise-worthy right too harsh but the harshness that you have is against the shaitaan to the point shaitaan you think the women fled from you in this regard shaitaan would flee from you as well or now what does that even mean is that just an expression and this is something that's really important for us to take what does allah subhanahu ta'ala tell us about following the shaitaan we know the impact of shaytan upon us that was shaytaan whispers and um he's not infallible shaytaan can whisper right what is the impact of these words allah tells us what in regards to following the shaitaan don't follow his footsteps don't walk behind him okay he whispers and when you remember allah he sinks knows to penetrate your fortress when you're not on guard and your fortress is the remembrance of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so subhanallah bin hajj he says about this subhanallah first thing he was always in a state of dhikr always in a state of remembering allah like the man's whole life is like he's walking vikir everything about him is dikkit he's remembering allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so shaytaan never catches he's always on guard so one of this one of the implications of this hadith is that shaitaan lost hope like i'm never going to get that guy let me go try to bother someone else he's he's a lost case for me that's the first thing the second one subhanallah which is a very beautiful implication of this is that if shaytan can't even be in the same place as you how can he even whisper to you so allah says don't follow the footsteps of shaytaan that's after he whispered and then you start to okay let me entertain this a bit let me start walking behind him but that's after you've given him entrance to come whisper to you so if you don't even let him in your space how's he even gonna whisper to you so it's like did not even give shaytan footsteps into his path umar put such a barrier between him and the shaitaan shaytan did not even have room to whisper to him subhanallah this is really really important none of the sahaba were none of them were infallible right but do you ever see um make a mistake that is shaytani in its nature that is devilish in its nature no his mistake sometimes is he he gets like in her debia right disputed with the prophet saws and he was wrong that day right where he said we should go forward ya rasool allah but that was not out of a place of ego it wasn't out of a place of desire a place of something evil right it was something else you know allowed his nufs to give place to the shaitan to where he exceeded the bounds in that regard in a way that suggested a lowly self of his taking control of him there's another narration from that the shaitaan has never met the shaytan has never met um since the day he became muslim like from that moment subhanallah remember what we talked about last week the story of umar becoming muslim like would you see this man and the way he was acting that day i mean he's fighting all the enemies of islam the muslims are marching behind him that same morning he was going to kill the prophet salallahu but subhanallah from the moment that he read taha that was it it was like the shaytan said this is our parting right subhan allah he had gotten to um enough to to inflame him to go kill the prophet sallallahu sallam but once read the quran and changed that day shaitaan parted ways with um that's number four the shaitaan would flee from him number five his ibadah that there is no one amongst us that was known to pray the night like remember uh those of you that watched the ramadan series on meeting muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam this narration where the prophet saws was walking the streets at night listening to the qiyam of the companions voice was too low the prophet saws said you know why is your voice so low abu bakr the one who needed to hear me heard me i was making him who needs to hear me hear me which is allah subhanahu wa it's okay if my voice is low and the prophet salallahu said raise your voice a bit and the prophet says i'm told um loud at night when you pray qiyam like you're walking anywhere near the house of um you can hear his voice booming with the quran throughout the night and he said ya rasulullah i was reading that loudly so i could make the shayateen flee subhanallah i was reading loud so shayateen would flee everywhere around me the prophet saws told them lower your voice a bit so abu bakr all the allah raise your voice a bit um lower your voice a bit but it shows you the mentality there was no one amongst us that was known for his night prayer like and his voice was too loud to conceal you know he had such a deep voice you know someone with that deep of a voice even if they try to whisper it doesn't work right his voice was the deepest amongst the companions and um who needed no loud speaker right that's why they thought when the prophet saws was dying let's let umar lead because everyone will hear um leading the salah he was so loud with his recitation and he couldn't conceal his crying like you could hear his crying throughout the night he says that um had two tunnels under his eyes subhanallah from the amount of crying that he would do at night when he would read the quran it's like two tunnels like the tears had eroded a part of his face from the amount of crying that he would do when he would recite the quran at night and um when he would hear the quran they said he would he would he would be as if allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was addressing him addressing him directly so one time he went out and he heard a reciter read surat and when he heard the reciter resurretur and he heard the verses about the punishment subhan allah the punishment is what worried him when he heard the verses about the punishment he said by the lord of the kaaba he's talking to me allah is talking to me and he became so distressed that he fell sick for some time all the allahu ta'ala and the people would come to visit him not knowing what caused him his fatigue like um heard the verses of the quran and they stung him sometimes because he worried about himself and this is something by the way that i want us to take as one of the most important lessons from the life of umar why does everyone love the story of um his strength right anytime you want to put someone in line right you want to put someone in check you reference the story of um why am i being this rough well um is like this why am i talking to you this way don't you know um why am i you know you know we justify our anger or we justify our harshness sometimes by trying to reference but the thing is is that if you don't have the tahajud of umar don't use the stick of umar you don't have his night prayer don't try to claim his stick his standing at night made him harsher on himself than he was on anyone else to where when um was rectifying the affairs of people there was never any nups in it there was never any self in it and people knew that you know subhanallah when you have a a leader and you know that the leader works harder than you what does that do it naturally inspires you and so when the person tells you you know to gives you that nudge to move further to do better you know that it's coming from a place of goodness and that that person leads by example they always knew that um was harsher on himself than anyone else that he pushed himself more than he pushed others and that just as he was trying to cause the shayateen to flee from him from his voice when he was praying at night in the way that he managed the affairs of the community he was causing the shayateen to flee he was bringing people to the best versions of themselves who pushed the people to ibaada and by the way this is instructive even in the leadership of um when when um appointed him in charge in iraq in kufa the first letter he receives you know you imagine like this is going to be your your instruction you're going to be the governor of one of the two iraq's you're go because at that time they called kufa and basra so you're going to be a governor of a mighty place the first thing he starts off with he says he said listen the most important of your affairs to me i'm appointing you as a leader is your salah be mindful of your prayer guard your prayer because if you lose your prayer then you will lose everything beyond it you lose your prayer you lose everything like subhanallah this is my first instruction to you as a leader as a governor not to be savvy he didn't give him some technical instructions about being a political leader be mindful of your salah because if you lose your salah then you will lose everything after your prayer and so that's the fifth thing we see from um of course his worship is something that is distinguished with his sadhaka charity with his fasting and everything like that number six perhaps the most distinguishing factor of his khilafah is his and we're going to talk about his either his justice inshaallah ta'ala next week with when we actually talk about some of the things that happen under his khilafah but you know the the narrations in this regard are plentiful uh the famous story of um where he uh said to the people do not make the to limit the dowry to limit the maha and a woman said to um that uh you cannot limit what allah subhanahu ta'ala did not limit and um he said the woman is right and omar is wrong like she put me in my place i agree she's right she told the truth the story of salman and pharisees stood up and he said listen and obey hear and obey which is the way that they would start as they're about to give instructions as the salman who said we will not listen to you nor will we obey you and um did not say hold on come here let me let me make an example out of you um why can you tell me why i want to know why because this wouldn't come from you oh salman unless there was something and he said you took two garments two cloths for yourself and you only gave us one cloth subhanallah like you think about the affairs of the ummah right when you have leaders like that that's that's just that is something else you know imagine if that was the complaint we had with our leaders today in the muslim world you took two for yourself and you gave one to everyone else right and um could have just said salman give me a break i'm the khalifa i can take two cloths and give you one instead of allah is so tall that abdullah gave him his cloth and they weaved them together as one so that it could cover the body of um so he actually did not take 2 and give everyone one salman who said now we will hear and obey okay cases close them subhanallah that is the justice of there are a few other narrations that i'll mention some of them not as well known and imam sha'abi rahimahullah he says that one time because this one's very practical for for for you when you're buying a car okay uh imam sharmi says one time um took a horse to test ride a horse he was the khalifa and he was looking to purchase a horse so he test ride took the horse for a test ride while um was on the horse the leg of the horse slipped and broke could be because he was so big allah knows best but the point is the horse messed up in the test drive so um he came back to the man he gave him back his horse with a broken leg the man said al-qaeda he said i want judgment. right like what do you mean judgment you know go find another horse no um okay you're right he said who do you want to judge he said the man said i will not be pleased except with a judge named shuri from iraq who is not even a sahabi he was a tabari who said fine so um i mean has to judge between the khalifa and the horse dealer by the way this doesn't absolve car dealers all right if you know that the the horse of the the leg of the horse is broken before you give someone a test drive of the horse then it's on you okay uh but with this car slash horse in this regard uh should i heard them both out so i said to um he said look you took the horse and it was healthy and in good condition you should have returned the horse in the same way so should i ruled against and he told um you have to either replace him with a horse like it or you have to pay him the damages i like you you're a kadhi now i appoint you as a judge so he appointed him as a judge in iraq just because he said your judgment was fair makes sense and you know what you're going to be a judge now because you judged against me you had the courage you had the integrity to hold that judgment even against me you get to be the godly uh now there are multiple narrations subhanallah too many of them to go through one other one because there are multiple ones that involve non-muslims remember the khilafah of um and there were many non-muslims now that were from ah that that lived one time you know there was a man uh that disputed with the jewish man under um he ruled in favor of the jew and the jewish man responded and he said sadaqa said you've told the truth or you have judged with truth um he poked him he said how do you know and he said because we find written in the torah that none judges with the truth except that allah sends an angel on his right and an angel on his left and they keep him steady with the truth and if he abandons the truth then the angels abandoned him another time where um saw an old man from from the people of the book and he was begging for charity and um he looked at him and he said that we took from you the jizya we you know we took the tax from you while you were young and then we lost you when you became old no no way and he took the man and um assigned for a portion from baytul mal from the public treasury to meet his needs the story of amram and his son was of course the conqueror of egypt under um and the son of ahmed whose name was muhammad so this wasn't abdullah no this was another son named muhammad ibn ahmed ibn aas who was a horse rider and he used to race with people and he raced with a coptic in egypt a christian man in egypt and this man was a slave and the man beat him so what did he do he went to him after the race and he hit him on the head with his with his whip and he said i'm the son of the nobles here i'm the son of the conquerors i'm the son of the nobles how dare you humiliate me this way the man subhanallah heard that um doesn't let this type of stuff goes go so he makes his way to madinah to complain about the son of the governor of egypt talk about taking a risk he goes to um he complains think about the sensitivities of this to leave egypt leave your post and bring your son with you and come to medina all for this man subhanallah brings him in front of him and he verifies that this indeed took place he hands the whip to this christian man and he says to this coptic slave he says uh whip him back go ahead and hit him the way he hit you all this is happening for that reason the man was hesitant but um he said hit him back and then he said now put the whip on the head of ahmedabad because it was in his name that you were humiliated like just to establish the balance in society that's the justice of umar now you might read then you say maybe um had something personal with this was an an excuse no because guess what happens also in his omar had a son named abdulrahman now omar by the way where are all my abdu's here i see at least one of them all right name three of his sons because the prophet saws said the most beloved of names to allah abdul rahman and abdullah abdul rahman al-khabib he had the big abdulrahman the middle of the small abraham he literally named them that way okay so this was one of the abdur-rahmans in egypt and he became intoxicated and he also committed zinna he also committed adultery now this is the son of a khalifa by the way subhanallah shows you you know subhanallah that hidayah is so in in the hands of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sons of prophets sons and daughters of the righteous people you know not all of um whose kids turned out like may allah be pleased with all of the companions so he he messed up he slipped and it was severe it's a major sin amras was the governor of egypt he decided to carry out the punishment in private and he barely did it you know just kind of like symbolic but in private because let's not make a scene this is the son of the khalifah when he heard about that he called for abraham and he treated him publicly carried out the flogging the way that everybody else would be have it carried out subhanallah to establish justice no no my son is not going to get special treatments because he's the son of amir manin absolutely not so subhanallah both of these situations involved his mercy people don't think of um in regards to his mercy but his mercy is special it is special and subhanallah the beauty of abu bakr and umar may allah be pleased with them both is that when abu bakr allah assumed was known for his leniency but he needed to show some toughness in the face of the apostasy of muslim al-qaeda and that threat so much so that um thought he was being a little bit too harsh when um he was known for his harshness there was a fear maybe he's going to be so hard instead we see the leniency of um came through the mercy of um came through and this is actually used to make subhanallah that from the frequent du'as of umar he used to say allah i'm weak make me strong make me strong now as he's talking about physical strength he's talking about what the prophet saws said the strong person is not the one that overcomes others it's the one it's able allah who's always able to control themselves in anger that's strength so he said oh allah i'm weak make me strong i'm harsh i'm severe you know subhanallah self-awareness is the most important ingredient to testia after sincerity after spiritual purif you know after your sincerity in your in your process of spiritual purification are you self-aware or not right you know um is self-aware it says sometimes i'm too severe fellaini make me lenient make me merciful and sometimes i'm stingy so make me generous oh allah i am weak make me strong o allah i am harsh make me lenient oh allah i am stingy make me generous this was the dua of um whoever does not show mercy will not have mercy shown to them and he who does not forgive will not be forgiven by allah whoever does not show mercy will not have mercy shown to them and whoever does not forgive will not be forgiven and whoever does not pardon okay whoever does not pardon will not have al-afu will not have pardon shown to them and whoever does not protect others will not be protected and this is also a narration from um he once had an incident where even that there was a man that had requested permission to speak to the allah in front of the people and he accused of all sorts of things he said wallahi you do not give us enough nor do you judge with us in justice made these heavy accusations you could start to see the anger that was inside of him from the accusation like i do everything to establish justice how dare you just come and try to throw this accusation in front of the people and he said that said to him o commander of the believers to show forgiveness to enjoy in what is good and to turn away from the ignorance so he said um immediately it was as if the man didn't say anything to him subhanallah he calmed down right away but the best part about this narration is the last part of it by the way he says would always be stopped by the book of allah meaning he's he he he adhered to the book of allah subhanahu ta'ala so he stopped that where the quran told him to stop like right away the quran says this okay we hear and we obey there was absolutely no hesitation when it came to the quran and this of course shows in his legal system of course is famous for waiving the punishment for theft in his time because there was a time where people were poor and so those especially that were stealing food in particular the poor that had to steal food um did not carry out the head of that he also said that for me to relax the punishments bishop by granting doubts to the person he said for me to relax punishments to not punish people by making excuses for them by casting doubts on them is more beloved to me than applying punishment to them while i have doubts about whether or not they are guilty or not so um showed mercy in that regard as one of course the mercy to the animals the mercy to anyone that had any complaint in his time number eight his humility who demonstrated humility in every way he used to say allah may allah have mercy on the one who shows me my faults he said if you're not going to be willing to tell me about my faults then don't sit in my presence i don't want people around me that are not going to tell me that you made a mistake here you made a mistake there subhanallah as self-aware as he was um wanted people around him that would humble him and show him his faults he said if someone said to um be mindful of allah his entire stature would shrink it was like you watched him shrink because someone would tell him to fear allah immediately he shrunk and he was extremely attentive and he would listen to what you were going to say next but the words to freeze um we hate people telling us things sometimes right correcting us no one likes to be corrected he stopped giving advice to the people they said how come you don't give nasiha anymore how come you don't give advice to the people he said because i don't really see people want to hear advice anymore so i just stopped i stopped telling people things about themselves i stopped giving people advice because i feel like no one really wants to hear it anymore where are the people that are seeking seeking that sincere advice so um if you started off a sentence with him child adult rich poor whatever your status was in society would shrink in that regard and by the way this is a sign as well of his distance from hypocrisy because the hypocrite when they get into arguments they transgress they become heated they start to curse they start to yell where do you see um yelling cursing at people being filthy with people when does um become vulgar with people and when is it ever from his lo from a lowly place doesn't happen with him the allah because his anger was always righteous anger one of my favorite sayings in this regard because what do we what do we usually attribute strength to the person with the loudest voice sometimes the person with the loudest voice dominates the gathering right or the loudest uh tweet the loudest on social media right they they rumble everything by their loud voices by virtue of their loud voices uh his do not be impressed by uh who is his his the volume of his voice don't be impressed by the the roar the the loudness of a person's voice he said don't be impressed by the volume in the voice of a man that's not a real man a person who can raise their volume he said but rather if a person fulfills the trust of people and restrains himself from hurting the honor of people um that's a man subhanallah like that's you want to see a strong man a powerful man a person who holds himself back from taking away from hurting the honor of the believers from taking away from the honor of the people so subhanallah the opposite of what we attribute strength to in that regard the story as well of hurumuzan who was a ruler from persia when he came to al-madinah and by the way there are about six narrations of um taking a nap out in the open on his shoes the khalifa of the muslims used to nap outside with his shoes under his head just pick a tree in madina and just take a nap and he wouldn't set up a bodyguard subhanallah that was his habit of the allah ruler of persia the famous story it doesn't have a sanad to it but the famous story of hurumuzan when he came to al-madinah and he asked to see um and he's expecting to see a palace like the one in persia instead they say that's right there amir menin the most powerful man in the world is actually sleeping under that tree on his uh on his sandals because you know what um did not sleep at night but he'd never miss his kaidula you take his nap every day he always took his nap so his nap was out there under the tree so he looks at um he says the famous words you ruled hakamta with justice adalta fa aminta so you were secure phenemta so you were able to sleep amongst the people in this way like you didn't have to worry because you didn't wrong people to where you had to run away from people you established so much justice amongst the people that you didn't have anyone to run away from you were able to just sleep out in the open in that way so that's number eight we learned his humility number nine and inshallah i'll try to wrap up because i know isha is is coming up number nine is one of the hardest things to come to terms with with his story and it's good sometimes to read the biographies that challenge your your your lifestyle a bit let me let me preface what i'm about to share his asceticism his poverty rally sometimes we look to the islam that lets us feel like everything we're doing is okay and we don't need to challenge ourselves a bit and just like sometimes we need to read about the fear of allah to balance us out because our hope is becoming delusional sometimes we we need some of these harsher or stricter examples from the companions of the prophet slice on them if you're looking for the companions they used to wear nice clothes and they used to live in nice places and that enjoyed good food you'll find them um is not that person and i want to actually mention what he says about himself this is an authentic narration he says that one time um he said that do not think that i could not have a fine life lo if i wanted to he said if i wanted to i could have had the finest cuts of meats the the best livers i know that for some of us we don't eat liver i don't eat liver but that was you know it's a fine piece so the best cuts of meat the best liver he says i could have had the best of food the best of living and he said i know what a good life is like i mean he used to live that life before islam right he said i could have had all of those things he said but i chose instead that i want to keep my good deeds to be rewarded later on because allah has described some people as those who have enjoyed all of their pleasures in this dunya and they have left nothing for themselves in the hereafter i know one time saw jabari and jaber dillon who was walking with a big uh bag of meat and he said to jabba i mean a beautiful sahabi a virtuous sahabi he said jabba what is that like as if he's doing something wrong jabber said yeah it's meat and he said jaber what did you do he said i bought a lot of meat i mean what did i do wrong it's meat it's and don't make this a vegetarian a vegan halacha please all right there's something else to this and um what made you do that like why did you buy all of this i just felt like eating meat i desired meats you mean every time you want something you just buy it amazon prime impulsive buyers you mean anytime you just feel like getting something you just buy it and he said didn't you hear the words of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala don't you fear that maybe you're getting all of your goodness in this life and this is another narration by the way again don't turn this into a vegan halaqa but um he said because meat of course was considered the the way of which a person you know enjoys their food and there this is actually in where he he said beware of eating too much meat he said that it can be as addictive as wine now by the way imam rahima allah is the one narrating the narration and guess what imam used to do he used to eat meat so there's something here to talk about balance right the importance of balance when we're studying the sahaba of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam so um was a person who was known for his poverty his asceticism and who used to warn the people from being too impulsive subhan allah there's a narration to him that if you have a comfortable bed don't always sleep on it take a break like a siam you fast from your delights you fast from your blessings and what does that cause you to do you come out of ramadan and you have an appreciation for those blessings that you used to take for granted so sometimes a person should take a break and used to advocate for that type of methodology that don't be an impulsive buyer don't just buy everything that you can yes it's halal fine there's no one that's saying it's haram but is it good for your test kia is it good for your spirituality just get used to the idea that i have enough money let me go buy it i can purchase this let me purchase it or should you actually weigh things out a bit and sometimes deprive yourself not to a point of self-harm but sometimes deprive yourself to a point where you will appreciate the blessings even more the last thing that i will end with self-accountable subhanallah you don't find a person that was more self-accountable than um so much so who can tell me the most famous statement of muhasabah the most famous statement of accountability i got it in auburn english right not that one not not that one that's coming insha'allah but and zach famous statement hold yourselves accountable before you are held accountable and weigh yourself before you are weighed meaning your deeds put yourself in the scale of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala before allah puts you in his scale and has it will be easier for you to hold yourselves accountable today than to be held accountable tomorrow hold yourselves accountable subhanallah with the um as many times as the prophet said some gave him the glad tidings of jannah as many times as the prophet saw some assured him all of the dreams the prophet saws had about him the prophet saws saying that if there was to be a prophet that would come after me it would have been umar all of these things and um would go to hadith who was the secret keeper of the prophet salla sallam who knew the names of the hypocrites and asked hadifa am i one of them am i one of the monafine can you imagine that that was the amount of his holding himself accountable where he would ask uh hadith i know that question just a few narrations insha'allah and then we'll stop we find a narration where um hua he said that if a caller from the heaven was to call out and say oh people all of you are entering jannah together except for one person he said i would be afraid that maybe that's me that's powerful self-accountability i mean would you feel pretty safe knowing all the terrible people that have walked the face of the earth like if a person called from janna and said all of you go to general except for one person probably think you're not that person um i would think that it might be me but then he said but then he said if a caller announced that all of you are entering into hellfire except for one person i would hope allah subhanahu ta'ala would make me that one person that's the balance of hope and fear and i end subhan allah with abu bakr all the allah when he appointed him as khadifah because we're going to pick up next week with his qiraffa radiallahura as the shepherd leader abu bakr allah appointed him he said he said the three people or the the best three people in regards to their intuition the three that got things right they saw things the right way were three people he said the first one bintus who said to her father right o my father appoint him because the best of those that you appoint is the strong and the trustworthy one meaning the girl who saw something in musa so that's the first person with great intuition the second person he said was the wife of you of the of al-aziz when she saw yusuf ali his salaam and she said you know he looks special this boy has something in him so let's take care of him it might be that allah will benefit us through him or we would take him as a son and he said the third one when he saw in um that he was the proper khalifa what a favor that abu bakr did for us by appointing umar as the khalifa and subhanallah when you see abu bakr allah appointing omar as the khalifa he's asking the companions what do you think what do you think he's calling us late he's calling abduct he's calling he's calling he's calling all these companions he's asking them one by one for their opinion about omar and i have to end with this one because it speaks to all of the virtues that we've spoken about the best answer he got was from uthman of the allah and realize uthman is literally next in line right i mean he's uthman who is more beloved who i mean he's in the running right tell me what you know about um and uthman said you know you know him better than i do right i mean you know ahmad of course it's rasulullah salam abu bakr and umar right and he said even so yeah speaking to uthman he said tell me about what do you think about um he says he said by allah what people don't know about him is even better than what people know about him how amazing is that i know for a fact that if people knew his secrets they would admire him even more than they admire him right now his private life would make him more worthy of the position that you are appointing him to than all of the public virtues that we know about him and there is no one amongst us that is like him he said may allah have mercy on you and he said well if i was not to choose him i was going to choose you like subhanallah you gave me everything i needed to hear about um i know him but i'm doing my due diligence but his private life is even better than his public life his secrets are even better than what people know about him all of the virtues of um can be summed up with ikhlas with sincerity we ask allah subhanahu ta'ala to be pleased with him we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be pleased with us we ask allah subhanahu wa to grant us these noble characteristics these noble qualities these noble virtues and to gather us with the prophet salla with the companions with the prophets with the righteous ones with the martyrs in the highest level of jannah insha allah next week we will continue with um you

Channel: Yaqeen Institute

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Keywords: yaqeen institute, islamic research, islamic lectures, islamic studies, islam, faith, iman, omar suleiman

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Length: 81min 13sec (4873 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021