Heroic Stands by Shiekh Abu Nizhar Ash Shaami: Omar bin Abdul Azeez (ra) - The Herosim of Rightly Guided Change

Our lives are a collection of stands taken. These stands are what will decide our status and value before Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgement. Heroic stands, which changed the course of history, produced events, and greatly influenced all who witnessed them or heard of them. Heroic stands, which we mention while living at a time when most stands, we see are those of humiliation and shame. Heroic stands, we mention them whose heroes are mentioned in the Quran, and the pages of the Seerah and our Ummah's past and recent history are overflowing with them. Heroic stands, which we mention in order to take lessons from. We mention them in order to receive flames of glory, optimism, and expecting good from Allah (swt), and to prove that our Ummah, by the permission of Allah (swt), is capable of bringing back the dignified stands which will fill the world with justice and light after it was filled with injustice and tyranny.

In order for a person to change himself and reform his private life this is excellence. As for one individual to change an entire era, transferring it from deviance to being rightly guided, then that is heroic by Allah (swt). The rightly guided hero of today is the second Umar bin Al-Khattab (ra), the fifth rightly guided Khalifah who managed to transform a biting rulership into a Khilafah upon the methodology of prophethood in just 30 months.

The heroism was in that he took over at a time when special privileges were widespread, officials had deviated and administrative corruption seeped in, and injustice was common. Here, Umar (ra) did not say: "What could I possibly do by myself? I must use a gradualist approach in fighting corruption because people have become accustomed to it. I do not want to turn my family and clan into enemies" or anything else of such drivel we hear today. Rather, from the moment he took office, he (ra) held a meeting with his clan, Banu Umayya and demanded that they return any land, assets, or slaves which they took possession of unjustly. Then he abolished all of the special privileges enjoyed by the princes, dismissed all of the corrupt governors, and reformed the state's administrative structure. So, in their place, he (ra) appointed Faqihs and the trustworthy. He (ra) spent money in returning what was unjustly taken to their rightful owners until money ran out from the Bait ul-Maal in Iraq, so he supplemented it from Ash-Shaam. He abolished taxes and tariffs and invested in agricultural and infrastructure projects. He (ra) also spent on social care for all levels of society. He (ra) cancelled Jizya from those who embraced Islam. All of that led to releasing efforts so agriculture and trade grew, and revenue from Zakat, Kharaj and Ushr increased, and the State's budget swelled up. He (ra) paid great attention to Zakat, so he collected it until poverty became extinct during his reign. The Zakat collectors passed through streets and markets asking: "Any poor persons?", "Any needy persons?" And the people would look at the money but not reach out to take it. This was the major economic crisis in the reign of Umar: finding ways to spend the surplus in the budget. People were no longer needy even though the area of the State he ruled was 13,000,000 kilometres squared. So, he commanded to have slaves bought and then freed and youth married off using Bait ul-Maal funds. Poverty became extinct even though during the reign of Umar (ra), there was no oil, gas or any of these massive resources which Allah blessed our lands today with. But it is rightly guided ruling, brothers and sisters, not corrupt ruling.

One of his most remarkable heroic stands is that he (ra) began spreading Islamic knowledge ('Ilm). He sent Faqihs and Ulema to teach the people their Deen. and he provided grants for anyone who dedicated himself to 'Ilm. So, the numbers of people embracing Islam increased in Persia, Egypt and other places. One of the greatest ways in which Allah (swt) supported Islam was that he commanded the recording of the noble Prophetic Sunnah. So, he (ra) protected it from loss and fabrication. Umar (ra) refused to ride in the escort and processions of Sultans and preferred his own mule to ride on. He (ra) had taken a house near the poor and needy whom were his main priority. He (ra) even granted an attendant and wage for anyone who was sick and incapable of having his needs met. His concern even extended to animals such that he instituted a weight limit on what they are made to carry out of mercy to them. When Umar (ra) first took office, he summoned his wife and told her to choose between staying with him and sending all what she owns of gold and jewelry to Bait ul-Maal and between going back to her family, even though she is the daughter of a Khalifah, the wife of a Khalifah and a sister of Khalifahs. She preferred to stay with him and said about him: "I have not seen anyone who prays and fasts more than him nor anyone who fears Allah (swt) more than him."

Brothers and sisters, this is how Khalifahs produce revival, and this is the level of radical change they can cause in their Ummah at all levels. Our Ummah today is full of resources and manpower but has become weak, poor and needing other nations in this age of tyrannical rulership. And just as Umar (ra) was able to bring the Ummah out of the biting rulership, our Ummah is likewise promised, through the efforts of the Du'aat, to come out of the tyrannical rulership into the age of the prophetic methodology again by the permission of Allah (swt). So let's work hard to bring back this glory once more. By Allah (swt), all of what we are going through will change, and Islam with its justice will cover the east and the west by the might of the noble or submission of the ignoble, a might through which Allah (swt) raises Islam and a submission which He humiliates Kufr with.

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