The Story of How Our Master ^Umar Embraced Islam

Al-Bazzar, At-Tabaraniyy, and others related that ^Umar said, “I was the toughest of the people on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so one day when the heat was at its peak in Makkah I met a man on the road and he said to me, ‘It is astonishing O Ibnul Khattab that you say about yourself that you do this and that against the call of Islam and that matter is already established in your house’.” This means some of your family members have embraced Islam. ^Umar said, “What are you talking about?” so he said, “Your sister has embraced Islam.” And ^Umar became very angered by that and he headed towards the house of his sister and knocked on the door. They said, “Who is at the door?” he said, “^Umar” and in the house was his sister, her husband, and a man reciting al-Qur^an. When they heard his voice, that it is ^Umar, they went inside and they hid and forgot the sheet of al-Qur^an that they were reciting from. His sister went for the door and opened it. When she opened he told her, “O you enemy of your own self! Did you change your religion?” and then he hit her with something that he had in his hand on her head and the blood started coming out and she started to cry but then she told him, “O Ibnul Khattab, do whatever you want to do for I have embraced al-Islam.”

^Umar went inside the house and looked and found the sheet of al-Qur^an. He said, “What is that? Give it to me.” She told him, “This is something that cannot be touched except by those who are in the state of purification.” So he took it from her and opened it. He recited “بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ” (Bismillahir-RaHmanir-RaHeem) and when he read the names of Allah tabaaraka wa ta^ala his heart became afraid and he dropped the sheet. He picked up the sheet again and read the first verse of Suratus-Saff:

سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

Then he read other than that and his heart was affected. Those who were present felt that something had changed about him and they came out from where they were hiding and they told him, “Abshir: we heard the Messenger of Allah saying “O Allah, A^izz al-Islam with one of the two ^Umars; ^Umar Ibnul Khattab or ^Amar Ibnu Hishaam” so he said, “Guide me to the place of the Prophet” so they showed him the house where the Prophet was staying.

So he went and he knocked on the door and they said, “Who is at the door?” and he said, “Ibnul Khattab” and they knew how tough he was on the Muslims so no one dared to open the door. They said, “This is ^Umar holding his sword” Hamzah said, “So what? Open the door for him. If he seeks evil then we shall kill him with own sword.” So they opened the door for him. When he entered, the Prophet ﷺ went for him and grabbed him by his dress and said to him, “Isn’t it time for you to embrace Islam O Ibnul Khattab?” and to that he uttered the testification of faith and in delight the Muslims said, “Allahu Akbar!” Then he said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “Aren’t we on the correct path?” The Prophet said, “Yes, indeed” so he said, “Why then are we hiding inside the house? Let’s go out for them” and the Muslims went out in two lines; heading one of the lines was Hamzah and ^Umar headed the other line, and the blasphemers were in extreme distress when they so Hamzah heading one of the lines and ^Umar the other.