Moral Stories

Abu Ubaidah Bin Al-Jarrah, commander of the Muslim army, was worried. He came to Umar, the leader of Muslims, and suggested that he rode the camel as they were about to enter Jerusalem. He thought the Romans, who are used to pomp and glory, will not respect his leader if he entered with such simplicity.

At first, Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was taken aback. He didn't expect Abu Ubaidah, one of the 10 whom the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave good news of Paradise in this world itself, to say something like this!

Then Umar spoke one of the most powerful statements ever to go down in history. He said, "We were a people who lived in humiliation before. Allah gave us honor through Islam. If we sought honor through anything else (at the cost of Islam) then Allah will humiliate us again."
That statement looks as if Umar was directly addressing us, Muslims of the 21st century. Surely enough, what was the Arabian peninsula before Islam? It was steeped deep into ignorance that rulers would pass by and would not bother conquering it.

People would bury their female babies alive; fights would start at the drop of a hat and continue for hundreds of years; immoral practices were rampant; and most importantly idols made by their own hands were worshipped.

Who could have thought during the time that in less than 100 years the same people would be ruling from Spain to nearly the Indian subcontinent and beyond? But that is what Islam did to them, that is what standing firm upon the truth brought them. They were exemplary as believers – practicing Islam with full conviction, and obeying Allah with full submission. This is what we lack today. We lack knowledge that precedes action, and faith that turns knowledge into deeds. If we set that right, Allah promises us the success we so desperately seek.

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