Farouk Omar (Omar Ibn Al-Khattab)
Episode 26.
You are very tired, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen!
Wouldn't you rather go back and have some sleep?
No. I will just rest here a little.
Daughter, get up and add some water to the milk.
In the morning you need to go out and sell it.
God forbids, mother.
Ameer Al-Mu'mineen sent a crier making clear that milk must not be mixed with water.
You cannot be seen here by Umar or his crier.
Get up and do as I told you.
I would not obey him in public and disobey him in private.
A small income with obedience to God is better than plenty with a sin.
If Umar cannot see us, God who never sleeps sees us.
Know the place, Aslam.
Tomorrow, find out who said what to who, and whether they are married or not.
- Ameer Al-Mu'mineen! - May we come in?
What is the matter, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen? I hope it is something good.
Bring in your daughter please.
I went out on night watch last night, then I felt tired.
I reclined against your wall
and God made me hear your conversation concerning that milk you have.
I repent, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
God forgives sins and accepts repentance.
Indeed, but He is also stern in punishment.
So fear God and never do it again.
I will not. Certainly not.
As for you, how good you are.
I enquired about you and learnt that the young woman is unmarried.
- Would you like to marry... - Zainab. She is Zainab.
This is my son, Asim, and he is unmarried.
I spoke to him about you and encouraged him. He is willing.
Would you like to look at him and let him look at you?
If you both like what you see, we will marry you.
She must look at him first.
Do you accept him as husband?
Why wouldn't she accept Ameer Al-Mu'mineen's son?
You are the guardian of both of them. Silence is the sign of acceptance.
Do not be taken in by his being Ameer Al-Mu'mineen's son.
He has no money of his own.
If he treats you badly, I will give him double punishment.
May God unite you two well and give you good children.
You are not so shy and silnt in Istakhr when I tried a bit of flirtation.
Had I known that you were the Emperor, the king of kings.
I myself did not not know. My mother had told me that
I am the grandson of the great emperor, Khosrau Parvez,
and that she hid me so that my uncle Shirweih could not lay his hands on me
and kill me as he killed his father, brothers
and all male descendents of his father.
She kept telling me not to let anyone know this truth.
She told me that I must remain an ordinary person.
Then you know what happened.
Now we are here in the white palace which belonged to my forefathers.
How do you feel, your majesty, now that you have regained your heritage?
I don't know.
I mean... sometimes I feel a stranger.
I have been used to ordinary life. I look around me
and see princes, commanders, nobility and servants prostrating themselves to me.
I have the treasures of my forefathers.
I only have to give a signal for someone to be killed,
or to fall from luxury to misery, or to rise from misery to luxury.
This makes me feel that I am bigger than life, greater than death,
and that a light of the Great Spirit is now inside me.
It is what brought me to the throne of my forefathers
and to the White Palace. Why wouldn't all this please me?
I do know now why princes have fought each other for the throne, killing one another.
Enter please.
Peace be to you, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. - And to you two be peace.
Sit down, both of you.
My Lord, help me against them both.
Each one of them wants me to slip in his favor.
Fear God concerning your dispute.
We only judge in accordance with what appears to us to be right.
We have no knowledge of what is in people's hearts.
Remember what the Prophet said: "You come to me with your disputes.
Some of you may have a better argument, and I may judge for him according to what I hear.
If I give a person something that rightfully belongs to his brother,
he should not take it. I am only giving him a brand of fire."
Present your complaint, Dahhak, before your opponent.
I have at Al-Urayyid a spring of water.
In between the spring and my farm
lies a plot of land belonging to Muhammad Ibn Maslamah.
If I want to run the water to my land, it must go through Muhammad's land,
but he denied me that.
I said to him, "It is a benefit for you: You can have your drinking water
and irrigate your land if you wish. It will not be of any disadvantage to you."
But he still refuses.
Why do you deny your brother something that benefits him
when it is of benefit to you too? You can use it without any disadvantage.
It is my land, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen,
I am free to do whatever I like with it, permitting anything or refusing it.
I fear that if I let this go that he and his family take advantage of that,
enter it and spoil my things there. It is as if I leave it to any passerby.
That it is your property is acknowledged.
However, your refusal harms him.
It is as if you are preventing him to benefit by his land.
This does not brings you any benefit,
while letting the water through will benefit both of you,
without giving you any disadvantage. Do you give priority to harm over benefit?
We are only in charge of what God has given us.
We should use it for benefit to ourselves and others.
The purpose is to build the earth.
You may stipulate that he must not harm your land. If he does, I will punish him.
Won't you let me have a choice in my own land, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen?
There is no choice in this matter.
He shall have his water running despite your objections. This is final.
- Peace be to you. - And to you be peace.
Enter!
- Is is a complaint? - Yes, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
- Against Hatib Ibn Abi Balta'ah? - Against these servants of his.
They work for me, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
- What have they done? - They stole my she-camel.
- Did you? - We did, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
Then we will implement the punishment for theft against you.
Tell me first, what have you done with his she-camel?
We slaughtered it, ate of it and fed other people.
Why did you do that?
Speak out. Do not worry about him.
Because of hunger, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. It has bitten hard at us.
Don't you give your servants enough to eat, Hatib?
All power operates by God's will. Where has compassion gone?
You employ them and leave them hungry?
Even if any of them eats what God has forbidden, he will incur no sin,
as God says: "He who is driven by necessity, not intending to transgress
nor exceeding his need, incurs no sin. God is Much-Forgiving, Merciful." (Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 173)
I am sparing them the mandatory punishment because of suspected necessity.
In case of doubt, it is better to suspend mandatory punishments
than to implement them. All three of you leave now.
What about my she-camel, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen?
By God, as I have spared them the punishment,
I shall fine you heavily. You are the one who caused this offence.
How much were you offered for your she-camel?
- Four hundred dirhams. - Go and give him eight hundred.
- Am I to give him double its price? - Yes, you will.
I shall be enquiring about your servants. If I hear that you have kept them hungry,
causing them to incur a mandatory punishment, you will suffer that punishment.
The case is settled.
- Peace be to Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. - And to you be peace with God's mercy.
- I am seeking your advice. - Speak!
I have a daughter. In pre-Islamic days I took her out aiming to bury her alive.
When I put her under the dust, I was overwhelmed with compassion
and I took her out. Then we embraced Islam.
When she was a young woman, she incurred a grave sin.
You mean adultery?
She took a blade to commit suicide.
We saved her after she had cut some of her veins.
I had treated her until she regained her health.
Subsequently she truly repented and she is of good character.
She is thus one of those whose bad actions God changes into good ones.
Now someone wants to marry her. Should I inform him of what happened?
Would you expose something God wants to remain hidden?
If you tell anyone of what she did,
I will make of you an example to all people in all provinces.
Give her in marriage as a chaste Muslim woman.
You have removed my burden, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
May God remove all worry from you in this life and in the hereafter.
Do not do that. It will be a negative point for you,
and an act of pride on my part, which God dislikes.
I am only one of the Muslim community,
but my test is harder than yours because of my position.
Go to your business, may God bless you.
My Lord, I have tried my best to arrive at the right rulings
on questions to which nothing in the Qur'an or the Sunnah
of the Prophet appeared applicable.
My aim is to set things to right, as far as far as I can.
This is my understanding of Your Faith. If I am right,
It is because of Your guidance,
and if I am wrong, it is because of my own faulty understanding.
In You I place my trust, and to You I turn.
Abu Al-Hasan, I have been having too many cases of complaints to look into.
I would love that you will share these with me,
so that you judge in disputes as I do.
You are the depository of knowledge of Islam and a guide to the Truth.
Suppose that I give a ruling on a certain case,
and you hear of my ruling but disagree with it. What will you do?
Where there is a clear statement in God's Book or the Prophet's sunnah,
we can have no dispute.
You know them better than anyone else.
On cases left to personal discretion, we are equal.
Everyone judges as he sees right.
I will not abrogate a ruling given by Abu Al-Hassan on the basis of his discretion,
even though I may have a different view. We pray for God's guidance.
Then I will do, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.
May God always keep me where Abu Al-Hasan is.
We are witnessing events
with no parallel that happened during the Prophet's lifetime.
We do not find in God's Book rulings applicable to them.
We judge them as we see fit,
according to our understanding of the objectives of our religion
and the interests of the people.
Personal judgement by the Prophet was right,
because God showed him, but revelation has ceased.
When we judge on the basis of personal discretion,
no one may say that his own judgement is God's judgement.
Anyone who says so claims to be privy to God's own knowledge
and purposes while others are not.
If you disagree with him you will be as if you disagree with God.
Soon enough, he will brand you as disbeliever.
He may even consider that you deserve to be killed.
That is certainly a disastrous state of affairs.
Discretion is available to all.
People may have different views on the same question.
Besides, one may have a certain view today,
but then discovers that a different view is better, so he abandons his first one.
I ruled on a particular question according to my discretion,
and then I heard someone saying: 'This is God's ruling and Umar's ruling'.
I was about to punish him severely. It was a bad utterance.
That was Umar's judgement. If it is right, then that is by God's grace,
and if it is wrong, then it is Umar's mistake.
O people! O people! Follow the Sunnah!
Follow the course which is defined by God and His Messenger.
What is determined on the basis of personal Discretion must not be considered...
in the same status.
- Peace be to you with God's mercy. - And to you be peace with God's mercy.
You must be meeting for something special. Let us hope it is good.
I received news that the Bishop of the city had a son
and he is hosting a celebration tonight, giving people much to eat and drink.
And are we to celebrate with him?
Yes, in our own way.
I also learnt that he will send much food and drink to the city guards.
When these drink, they are excessive and they get drunk or nearly so.
This gives us an opportunity we must not miss.
- You mean... - Yes, it seems it is time.
Deep into the night, they will be much less alert,
due to their drunkenness and sleepiness. We can climb the wall then.
At the Eastern Gate? But it is the most difficult.
Yes, but it is the least guarded, as our scouts have confirmed.
They rely on the strength of the gate and the thickness of the wall next to it.
The Muslims! The Muslims!
They stormed through the Eastern Gate.
Move away!
You have not protected the city, and now you want to ruin us all.
A division of the Muslim Army has entered through the Eastern Gate.
Unless we rush to their commander now and sue for peace, we will all be ruined.
- The Muslims have conquered the city! - They entered through the Eastern Gate!
Peace! Peace!
Peace, Sir!
We have opened the gates for you willingly,
on the basis of the conditions of security you have promised us.
We did this before your men who entered through the Eastern Gate reached us.
Would you like to sit there, Sir?
The Covenant of Peace, Sir!
Yes, we entered from our side by force,
but I faced little resistance by the Bizantine guards.
Soon after that, a group of the residents came to me peacefully.
They had expelled the Byzantine force close to them,
and prevented them from fighting us.
In doing so, they exposed themselves to retaliation by the Byzantines.
Prior to that, they helped us.
I gave them a pledge of safety and security for themselves,
their property, churches and walls of the city,
a pledge by God and according to the practice of God's messenger,
his successors and the believers. No one approaches them with anything but good.
They have to pay the tribute, the jizyah, and we will protect them against any enemy.
A commitment by any Muslim is binding on the Muslim community.
Khalid is a leader. We honour his pledge.
Tell me, people, am I dreaming?
Is this Damascus where we used to come and do our trade?
We might hear some Byzantines referring to us in their coversation.
We learnt from those of us who spoke their language that they have contempt for us.
They described us as uncouth Bedouins.
They allow us into their city only because they profit by our trade.
Here we are now: we are its kings.
Our Caliph is not a king, Abu Sufyan, so that we become kings with him.
Call us what you will. The people here are now under our rule.
This is what was promised by God and His Messenger.
True is their promise.
Would that Abu Sufyan came early to Islam.
He would have been a leader under Islam as he was a leader before it.
But here is my son, Yazeed.
He achieved under Islam what I could not achieve in Muslim leadership.
I hope that my son, Mu'awiyah, will attain what his father could not.
Will you settle here, Abu Sufyan?
In Damascus?
I am too old for that, Abu Yazeed. I yearn for Makkah and Madinah.
What about you?
Maybe I will stay for a while.
Jihad in Syria is not over yet. Damascus is the crown jewel,
but we shall not rest, nor let the enemy rest, until we take Jerusalem, God willing.
Most warm welcome to you, Abu Yazeed.
You look as one in his prime, despite your long journey.
Is this the effect of the air of Damascus?
Couldn't this great victory have come ten years earlier?
All praise be to God, as I now see you a fighter for God's cause.
He has shown you how His promise comes true.
And I still have my front teeth which Umar wanted to pull out,
so that I could not speak.
God's Messenger (Peace Be Upon Him),
was without equal in magnanimity (generosity), wisdom and knowledge.
You know that we hardly received the happy news of the fall of Damascus
when I received a letter from Al-Muthanna in Iraq
telling me that the Persians have appointed a descendant of Khosrau as their king.
They compete in serving him.
Thus, the rivalry between them is over.
They have gathered their armies, and sent advance forces to the rural areas,
coercing people to abandon their agreements with our brothers (brethren).
Al-Muthanna and his army cannot stand up to such a great force.
They want it a decisive battle, which we also want.
I am instructing Abu Ubaidah to dispatch Al-Qa'qa and Khalid's units to Iraq.
I have also written to Al-Muthanna,
instructing him to take his forces out of the urban Persian areas
and move to the open places,
dividing his forces in the locations close to the Persians.
They must recruit everyone in the Tribes of Rabeeah and Mudar
and their allies,
either willingly or unwillingly.
They must get the Arabs to mobilize their all as the Persians are doing.
Whatever calamity befalls the Arabs will apply to all of them.
Any bounty and blessing God grants them will similarly apply to all.
Therefore, they must rise in total when their enemy is all out against them.
Yes. Yes.
I will be going out to meet them when they have gathered.
Abu Al-Hassan will deputize for me here in Madinah.
That you march at the head of the army to Iraq is not a well advised plan.
Should you be killed or defeated in such a decisive battle,
we fear that Muslims will not be able to hold their own after that.
You better stay in Madinah, directing armies and managing the state.
If victory is achieved, this is what we all hope for.
Otherwise, you can send other troops to engage the enemy
- until Allah grants us victory. - Yes. Yes.
If this is is the accepted view, who shall we appoint as army commander?
The lion himself.
Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas.
I do not want to lose all this!
I heard a wise man saying: 'A person who owns much, fears for much.
The one who experiences the happiness of kingship
will be the most distressed for losing it. '
The sense of loss is proportionate to what is lost.
Today, I am the most worried, that I may lose this one.
Are you referring to the Muslim army which has encamped at Al-Qadisiyyah?
Rustom has not yet marched with the army. Why the delay?
Every time I call him he says:
"Perhaps the state will be more stable with me if I do not take part in the war,
and that patience is better than haste."
It is better to engage only in skirmishes until their omen becomes a a bad one.
He advised that Jalinous could march at the head of an army to meet them.
You should not call Rustom or consult him.
You command him and he obeys.
I learnt that he consults the stars and believes in them.
Let him and his stars perish if the Muslims were to take Persia.
The stars write what we do. It is not that we do what the stars write.
Those who read the stars only read what is in their own minds.
Show them that YOU, not his stars, hold command.
A month! A whole month since the Arabs encamped at Al-Qadisiyyah.
They have rested and recuperated. They ate of the good food of the country,
regained their strength, went all over Iraq and brought it back under their control.
Every time I ordered you to march to them...
at the head of an army the like of which the Arabs have never seen,
you have excuses and delayed matters. I don't know what goes on in your mind.
You may think: "He is a lad who was one of the masses
and whose only hope was to survive. We brought him here...
and placed him on his ancestors throne. He does not know what kingship means."
No, I never sought this, and I was content with what I had.
However, now that I am on the throne of my ancestors,
I have the command and I will never abandon my throne to my last breath.
We are all your servants, your majesty!
If you fear to face the Arabs, then resign
and find for yourself some place far away in Persia where you may tend sheep.
Farouk Omar