Hazrat Umar Farooq — Page 10
It is said that he migrated with a party of twenty people and stayed at Qaba situated at a distance of about two miles from Madinah. Later on the Holy Prophet also migrated from Makkah to Madinah and stayed for a while in Qaba. HADHRAT UMAR HEARD THE WORDS OF ADHAN IN A DREAM A short while after his arrival in Madinah, the Holy Prophet instructed his followers to build a mosque so that the Prayer Services can be held in it. Although Five Daily Prayers had been established and the part of the day they were required to be offered were known, yet the worshippers were unaware of the exact time of their commencement. They used to come to the mosque for each Prayer according to their own estimate of the time of the Service. This was not a satisfactory arrangement and it was felt that a suitable means should be adopted for calling Muslims to the Prayers. A consultation meeting was held and various suggestions were made. As the Jews use a horn and the Christians use bells for the purpose of calling worshippers to Prayer, some Companions gave their opinion that one of these means should be adopted. Hadhrat Umar, however suggested that someone should be appointed to announce that the Prayer was about to begin. The Holy Prophet approved of this suggestion and directed Bilal, a freed slave who had accepted Islam, to carry out this duty. One day a Companion of the Holy Prophet Hadhrat Abdullah bin Zaid Ansaari came to the Holy Prophet and told him that the words of Adhan, the Call to Prayer, were taught to him in a dream. The Holy Prophet told him to teach those words to Bilal. Hadhrat Bilal learnt those phrases, stood up and with a loud voice recited the Adhan for the first time. Hadhrat Umar listened to these words and hastened to the Holy Prophet and told him that he, too, had heard the same words in a dream. The Holy Prophet was convinced that this was a Divine scheme and thus the Call to Prayer was established in Islam. HADHRAT UMAR IN THE BATTLE OF BADR Hadhrat Umar remained close to the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, throughout his life. He took part in all the battles forced upon the Muslims by the non-believers. He was involved in all the treaties and covenants entered into and the measures adopted for the propagation of Islam by the Holy Prophet. The first battle, forced upon Muslims by the Makkans, was the Battle of Badr. It was the month of Ramadhan. A well armed and well equipped force of more than a thousand warriors set out to Madinah to attack the Muslims. The Holy Prophet set forth from Madinah to meet them with a volunteer force of three hundred and thirteen ill equipped Muslims. The battle was fought at a place called Badr. Hadhrat Umar was the right hand of the Holy Prophet in this battle and showed acts of extraordinary bravery and skill. Fourteen Muslims were martyred in this battle while seventy Makkans were killed. Moreover, the Muslims took about the same number of Makkan nobles as prisoners. A few days after the battle, two Makkans, Umair bin Wahb and Safwaan bin Umayya were mourning those killed at Badr in the courtyard of the Ka ‘ bah. Suddenly Safwaan said to Umair, “Life is no longer worth living. ” Umair said, “I feel the same way. I am ready to risk my own life but the thought of my children and my unpaid debts restrains me. Were it not for that, I could have gone to Madinah secretly and kill Muhammad. I have an excuse for my journey to Madinah as my son is held prisoner there. ” 10