How Umar (RA) entered Islam
In the beginning, there were many people who opposed Islam and the message of the prophet (SAW) along with him and his followers. With time, Allah (SWT) opened the doors of understanding for them. One of the people who strongly opposed Islam at the time was Umar ibn Khattab (RA). Once, he decided, “I am going to end the life of this prophet. This is the only way to stop this religion from spreading.” He took out his sword and started making his way to the prophet (SAW)’s home. Someone saw him like this, walking with his sword out, and said, “Where are you going?” He said, “I am going to put an end to this man.” Referring to the prophet (SAW). The man said, “Before you do something as big as that, you should first see what is happening in your own home.” Umar said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Your sister and brother-in-law have already accepted Islam.” Umar did not believe this. The man said, “Go and see for yourself.” Umar (RA) changed his direction and went off to the house of his sister.
When he arrived, her and her husband were learning the Qur’an from another sahabi named Khabbab (RA). When they heard Umar outside and how he was angrily pounding on the door, Khabbab (RA) went into a hidden room to hide from his wrath. He left the scroll that the Qur’an was written on in his rush. Umar (RA) started yelling at his sister and reprimanded her. She affirmed that her and her husband had accepted Islam, and he got very aggressive, punching his sister, and making a big ruckus. He threatened to kill everyone, so his sister stood firmly in front of him and said, “You can do whatever you want. This is our faith and nothing you or anyone else can do will change that.” Umar (RA) looked at his sister and saw that she was bleeding. For a second, he felt guilty about what he had done. Just as he was thinking this, his eyes fell upon the scroll that the Qur’an was written on. He said, “What is that? Let me see it.” He went to grab it and his sister refused to let him touch it. “You cannot touch that. You are impure.” Umar said, “I just want to read it.” She replied, “You cannot. Go take a bath first.” He went to take a bath, comes back and starts reading, and on that parchment, surah Taha was written. He started reading it and was amazed. “This is unbelievable. These are not the words of a human being nor a person who wants to lead people astray. This is coming from a different source altogether.” As he continued reading, his heart continued to change, so much so that, after reading what was written of the surah, he decided to accept the religion that had that revelation as its scripture. He said, “Take me to Muhammad (SAW). I wish to accept Islam.” They took him, and when he got to where the prophet (SAW) was, everyone was scared, knowing that Umar (RA) was planning to harm the prophet (SAW) before. When they figured out that he was not there to carry out any mission of harm and that he wanted to meet the prophet (SAW) genuinely, after a few minutes, he accepted Islam and testified that there was no god but Allah (SWT). The Muslims were so excited. They could not believe that this was happening, as Umar ibn Khattab (RA) was one of the strongest figures at that time. He was a very tough person and had a lot of influence.
If you look at the story from the beginning to the end, there are a lot of lessons in it. We could go on for hours about it, but the main ones are that Umar (RA) started out in anger and with a mission to wipe out the prophet (SAW), but the people he encountred stood their ground, showing that they were not scared of him. Aside from this, the beautiful words of Allah (SWT) in the Qur’an; a person who starts reading them with just a little bit of reflection, their heart begins to change. That word of Allah (SWT) is so powerful that it changes peoples’ hearts who have a glimpse of desire for guidance. Similarly, in times when you and I might think that there are a lot of people that are against Islam, we would be surprised to find out that a lot of them simply do not know about it and that the only version of Islam they have heard about is the negative one. It does not mean they are bad people, but rather, it just means that they have heard the wrong things from the wrong news or from the wrong people. Us Muslims do not need violence to spread deen, but what we do need is patience. We need resilience and toughness so we do not change ourselves because of peoples’ perceptions. We need to attach ourselves to the Qur’an because it does change our hearts. Take out some time to read the Qur’an and its meaning and it will work wonders for you, just like it did for Umar (RA) at that time. May Allah (SWT) give us the ability to implement these beautiful teachings of our deen.
