When I Met Umar Ibn Al Khattab

When I Met Umar ibn al-Khattab

"He was twenty-six when the Prophet's prayer reached his heart: 'O Allah, strengthen Islam through whichever of these two men is dearer to You: Umar ibn al-Khattab or Amr ibn Hisham.'

So the story began: a prayer drawing him from disbelief into the light of Islam, from vice towards virtue, from Dar al-Nadwah to Dar al-Arqam. People's characters are like precious metals: the best of them before Islam can be the best within it when they gain understanding. Umar's earlier character was already preparing him to become Umar al-Faruq.

What he needed was reshaping, and Islam could bring that transformation. It does not erase natural characteristics, but refines them; it does not destroy qualities, but polishes them. Through Islam, Umar was refined into one of those rare people who appear only once in history."