Omar Ebn Al Khattab (28)

Now we continue with Omar Ebn Al Khattab’s life story to see how he was dealing with troubles he faced while ruling the Muslim world. During the Ramada year that came eighteen years after Al Hijra, Omar Ebn Al Khattab kept eating only oil and bread for a whole year and this caused so many historians to describe sayedna Omar in a different way. Some historians say that Omar was a white man, while others say he was a black man, this is because eating oil and bread for a year changed the color of his skin. In the Ramada year there were shortages in different sources of life (food, drink, fruits … etc), so Omar had to run the crisis wisely.

Back to the Ramada year, the areas that suffered from starvation were The Arabian Peninsula and Al Madina, so Omar sent a letter to Amr Ebn Alas who was ruling Egypt in that time saying ” Amr, do you accept living in prosperity with the people of Egypt while your Muslim brothers in Al Madina and Makkah are dying? Please send food and other necessary goods for life to the starving areas”. Amr Ebn Alas wrote Omar back saying “food, drink and clothes are coming to you. Egypt will send twenty caravans and more than ten ships full of food and drink for Muslims who are starving”.

Such situation clearly illustrates the important role that Egypt played in old Islamic ages, and how its people never forgot other Muslims around the world. Egypt has always been supporting other Arabian and Muslim countries without waiting for return.

In this tough year, Omar used to gather Muslims between Al Mghreb prayer till Al Ishaa prayer to buy them food from his own money. This news spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula (that Omar is inviting those who are not able to find food to come and eat), so the number of people increased from five thousand to ten thousand, then to twenty five thousand and then to forty thousand. Poverty was dominating the economic situation, and Omar was feeding all these numbers from his own money and with the assist of aids came from Egypt and Al Sham. The Caliph also had to borrow money to feed poor Muslims and he used to pay back as soon as he can. Can you imagine a governor who borrows money to feed his people?!!

He used to serve the invited people himself with his servant who was always with him. He never eat until he is sure that all Muslims had enough food and drink, and then he go to his house to keep praying and asking Allah to rescue the nation of Mohammed peace be upon him.

To be continued…

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