Al-Khalifat-us-Saleh ~ The Pious Caliph.

Fatimah, the wife of Caliph Umar Bin Abdul Aziz, narrated about his illness: That night, his shivering became uncontrollable and he couldn’t sleep, so we kept a vigil over him and didn’t sleep either. In the morning, I told a servant of his known as Marthad, “O Marthad, stay with the Amir Al-Mu’minin and if he has any single need then at least you are at hand.”
We left and fell into a deep sleep due to the previous night spent awake. It was well into the day once we awoke and we went to see (Umar) and found Marthad sleeping outside the house. I woke him up and said, “What are you doing outside Marthad?!”
Marthad replied, “He told me to get out! He said to me, ‘Marthad, leave me! By Allah, I see something which is neither human nor jinn!’ When I came out, I heard him recite: ‘We grant the Home in the Hereafter to those who do not seek superiority on earth or spread corruption: the happy ending is awarded to those who are pious.’ (Qur’an, al-Qasas, 83)
“So I entered the room again and I saw his face turned and his eyes were closed. He had passed away.” (Tarikh Al-Tabari, 4/72)


When 'Umar ibn Abd al Aziz died, the learned men came to his wife to express sympathy and say how great a calamity had struck the people of Islam by his death. And they said to her, 'Tell us about him - for the one who knows best about a man is his wife'.


And she said: "Indeed he never used to pray or fast more than the rest of you, but I never saw a servant of God who feared Him more than 'Umar. He devoted his body and his soul to the people. All day he would sit tending to their affairs, and when night came he would sit up while business remained. One evening when he had finished everything, he called for his lamp - from which he used to buy the oil from his own money - and prayed two prostrations. Then he sat back on his folded legs, with his chin in his hands, and the tears ran down from his cheeks, and this didn't stop until dawn, when he rose for a day of fasting.


I said to him, 'Commander of the Believers, was there some matter that troubled you this night?' And he said, 'Yes, I saw how I was occupied while governing the affairs of the community, all its black sheep and its white sheep, and I remembered the stranger, beggared and straying, and the poor and the needy, and the prisoners in captivity, and all like them in the far places of the earth, and I realised that God most high would ask me about all of them, and Muhammad would testify about them, and I feared that I should find no excuse when I was with God, and no defence with Muhammad(saw).'


And even when 'Umar was with me in bed, where a man usually find some pleasure with his wife, if he remembered some affair of God's (people), he would be upset as a bird that had fallen into the water. Then his weeping would rise until I would throw off the blankets in kindness to him. 'By God' he would say, 'How I wish that there was between me and this office the distance of the East from the West!'


While Umar's reign was very short, he is considered one of the finest caliphs in Islamic History, second only to the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs.Umar was a great-grandson of the second Rightly Guided Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab.Umar's leadership cannot be compared to any other person's - it was so unique. Different leaders reigned before and after him but none could break his record. He died in the year 719 CE, after ruling for two years and five months. His subjects mourned in great pain, saying that, they would never have a leader like umar.




When the Khalifah died the Roman emperor is reported to have said:


“I should not be the least surprised if a monk renounces the world and busies himself in worship behind closed doors, but I am simply amazed at this man who has a vast empire at his feet but he rejected it and lived the life of a monk.”
The Memory of Caliph 'Umar bin Abdul-Aziz by his Wife
Abu Yusuf (d. 182 AH / 798 AD)
Taken from the Book of Land Tax

The Asceticism of Ali (r).

Description of Hazrat Ali (r) that made Hazrath  Muawiyah (r) weep.

After Ali died , Mu`awiyah bin Abi Sufyan said to Dirar bin Damrah


“Describe ‘Ali to me.”


“Will you not excuse me from answering you,” said Dirar.


“No, describe him,” insisted Mu`awiyah.


“Please excuse me from doing so,” said Dirar.


“I will not,” said Mu`awiyah.


” I will do so, then” said Dirar with a sigh.


“By Allah, he was (far-sighted) and very strong. He spoke with a truthful finality, so that, through him , truth became distinguished from falsehood. He ruled justly, and knowledge gushed forth from him, as did wisdom. He felt an aversion to the world and its (pleasure). He was comfortable with the night and its darkness ( meaning he prayed a lot). By Allah he would cry profusely ( from fear of Allah); long durations would he spend in contemplation, during which time he would converse with his soul. He showed a liking to coarse garments and lower-quality food. By Allah, it was as if – in his humbleness- he was one of us: when we asked him a question, he would answer us; when we would go to him, he would initiate (the Salam); and when we would invite him (to our homes), he would come to us . Yet, in spite of his closeness to us, we would not speak (freely) with him, because of the dignity and honor that he exuded if he smiled, he revealed the likes of straight and regular pearls (his teeth). He honored religious people and loved the poor. The strong person could not hope to gain favors from him through falsehood. And the weak person never lost hope of his justness. I swear, by Allah, that on certain occasions, I saw him in his place of prayer when the night was dark and few stars could be seen; he would be holding his beard and crying the way a very sad person cries; and I would hear him saying,


“O world, O world, are you offering yourself to me? Do you desire me? Never! Never! Deceive someone other than me, I have divorced you for the third time, so that you cannot return to me (metaphorically, of course; he is alluding to the fact that, in islam, the third divorce is final) your life is short, the existence you offer is base, and your danger is great. Alas for the scarcity of sustenance (good deeds), the great distance of the journey, and the loneliness of the road!”


Upon hearing this description, Mu`awiyah’s eyes swelled with tears, and not being able to hold them from gushing forth, he was forced to wipe them with his cuffs; and the same can be said for those who were present. Mu`awiyah then said, “May Allah have mercy on the father of Al-Hasan, for he was, by Allah, just as you described him to be. “


He then said, “O Dirar, describe your sadness at having lost him.”


“My sadness” began Dirar “is like the sadness of a woman who cannot control her tears or allay her grief after her child , while in her lap, has just been slaughtered.”


Dirar then stood up and left.


Source: Sifatus-Safwah 1/66


Note: Ali ibn Abi Talib was the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law and the fourth Caliph after Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman. He was also amongst the ten companions who were promised Jannah. Muawiyah was also a noble companion of the Prophet (Salalahu Alayhi wa Salam) and was also the fifth Caliph, after Ali.May Allah be pleased with them all! A'meen.

Quote:” A flower nipped in the bud, it was from paradise and it went to paradise.. but has left its fragrance in my mind”. This quote was said by  Ali (r) towards his love,  Fatima Zahra(ra), once she had passed away.

A Scholar and His Student.

Imaam Shafi’ee Visits Imaam Ahmad – A Strange Incident With A Beautiful Explanation!

Imam Ahmad used to mention the virtues of his sheikh, Imam Ash Shafi’ee to his wife. He would mention to her the extensive and superb knowledge of Imam Ash Shafi’ee as well as his taqwah (i.e. piety). Imam Ahmad invited Imam Ash Shafi’ee to come visit him at his home. When the time for dinner arrived, Imam Ash Shafi’ee ate until he was full and went to the guest room for some sleep.

The wife of Imam Ahmad said to him: “O Ahmad! Is this the same Shafi’ee that you used to tell me so much about?“

Imam Ahmad said: “Indeed he is!“

So she said: “I noticed three things about him worthy of criticism! Firstly, when we served him the food, he ate plenty of it! Secondly, when he went into the guest room, he went to sleep without standing up to perform the night prayer (i.e. tahujjud)! Lastly, when he prayed Salat ul Fajr with us, he did not perform ablution (i.e. wudhu)?!”

So Imam Ahmad went to Imam Ash Shafi’ee to ask him about these three matters his wife noticed. Imam Ash Shafi’ee said to him, (the way a father would explain to his son): “O Ahmad! I ate plenty because I know for certain that your food is halal (i.e. permissible islamically) and you are a generous man! And the food that comes from a generous man is a cure, while the food that comes from a stingy man is a disease!

However, I didn’t eat plenty of food in order to achieve my fill; rather I ate plenty of your food in order to derive the cure from it! As for the reason I didn’t stand up at night to perform the night prayer, when I laid my head down to get some sleep, I looked and all I could see was the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet (Sallahu alaihi wa salam) right in front of my face, So I deducted 72 fiqh related benefits from them for the Muslims to benefit from. Thus there was no opportunity for me to stand and perform the night prayer!

As for the reason why I prayed Salat ul Fajr without performing ablution, by Allah! My eyes never tasted the sweetness of sleep in order for me to renew my wudhu!! I was awake the whole night, so I prayed Salat ul Fajr with the same wudhu I had for Salat ul Isha!!!“

[Collected by Al Hafidh Ibn Hajr in Fath ul Bari concisely and by Abu Nu’aim in Hilya tul Awliyaa’. Translated by Abu Azzubayr Shadeed Muhammad on 3/30/2010 in the City of Riyadh Saudi Arabia]

A Precious Pearl of Arabia.

"I never ate a good meal without thinking I was stealing it from those who have nothing to eat." -Sayyid Qutb, Arab literary critic, social and political reformer, and Muslim da'ee.

"Whosoever wants carefree, cheap and animalistic pleasure, there is plenty of it for him or her in the West. And whosoever wants human-like freedom, he or she will find it in the gracious spiritual freedom of the East. This is higher than any bodily pleasure and any freedom of thought that is available to the Western slaves." -Sayyid Qutb. He wrote this in 1946 in an article for the Alam Al-Arabi magazine.He wrote this before he had traveled to America.

"Shaheed is the person who bears witness that Allah's law is more precious to him than his own life."

Sayyid Qutb said the above line to an officer who asked him about the meaning of Shaheed during his 'trial' in 1966, a trial that was fabricated to justify killing him. It was denounced by lawyers and human rights organizations all over the world.*

It is said that he said "Alhamdulillah" and smiled when he was read his death sentence.