‘Umar’s Murder

According to some quotations, especially what has been narrated by Tabarī, some people have claimed that ‘Umar was murdered with the plot of Ka‘b al-Ahbār. This news has been raised in different forms and it seems that anyone has changed it in a particular way. Historians and narrators of Sunnites hadiths brought this news in their books for centuries, but they believed so much in the predictions and reports of Ka‘b and people like him that they did not have the least suspicion about Ka‘b’s role in the caliph’s murder. Djāhi¨ who is a rationalist critic, has this opinion about what Ka‘b has narrated from the Torah (although there is no such thing in the Torah), I believe that many of these reports which have been quoted with phrases such as “We find them in the books” or “written in the Torah”,...

Thoughts of the Second Caliph- Umar

The second caliph, more than any other personality, influenced the Sunnites thoughts and ideas. As his period of caliphate was a highly crucial juncture in the history of Islam, his thoughts and deeds, too, were of great significance for Sunnites Muslims. This is to the extent that he is considered as a role model who made no mistakes and every word or act of him can be trusted as a religious tradition. Therefore, it is necessary to talk about him here. The high status of ‘Umar in Sunnites thinking, can not be compared to anyone else. In the narrations told about ‘Umar’s good traits, the ranking attributed to him is a little lower than prophethood! This status has been interpreted as “Muhaddath”. Muhaddath is said to be someone who receives “revelations”. In a narration by Bukhārī, Muslim...

‘Umar’s Functionaries

With the expansion of this period’s conquests, vast lands fell under the rule of the Medina government. Running these lands needed managers with new values who could open the way for more conquests. In fact, the most important point for the caliph and Muslims in those conditions was further enlarging the conquered lands. For running the affairs of border regions, mostly those people were chosen who had enough military capability and experience. Thus, one of the main criteria of the caliph for selecting a functionary was someone with such an ability who could properly run the city and the region under his control. A list of ‘Umar’s functionaries in the cities was as follows, Mecca, Muhriz Ibn Hāritha Ibn ‘Abd Shams; Qunfudh Ibn ‘Umayr Taymī; Nāfi‘ Ibn ‘Abd al-Hārith Khuzā‘ī; Khālid Ibn ‘Ās...