Khalifa Umar bin al-Khattab - Traditions Of Ethical Importance

Some traditions of the Holy Prophet of ethical importance have been reported by Umar.

Umar reported that the Holy Prophet said:

"Deeds are to be judged only by intentions, and a man will have only what he intended. When one's emigration is to God and His Messenger his emigration is to God and His Messenger, but when his emigration is to a worldly end at which he aims or to a woman whom he marries his emigration is to that to which he has emigrated".

Umar reported God's Messenger as saying:

"If any one says, on seeing some one who is suffering affliction 'Praise be to God Who has kept me free from the affliction He has brought on him and has shown me favour above many whom He has created, that affliction, whatever it may be, will not smite him."

Umar said that he had heard the Holy Prophet say: "An oath or a vow to disobey the Lord or to break ties of relationship or about something over which one has no control is not binding on you."

Umar stated that he heard the Holy Prophet say "Give the road its due". He was asked what was the road's due. The Holy Prophet replied:

Umar reported that the Holy Prophet taught him to say:

"O God make my inner nature better than my outer, and make my outer nature good. O God I ask Thee to give me some of the abundance Thou givest to men, in family, property and children, which neither strays nor leads astray. "

Umar stated that he heard the Holy Prophet say:

"He who is humble for God's sake will be exalted by God, for though he considers himself lowly he is great in the eyes of men; but he who is proud will be abased by God for though he considers himself great he is lowly in the eyes of men to such an extent that he is of less value in their estimation than a dog or a pig."

Umar reported the Holy Prophet as saying:

"In the last days my people will be afflicted with distresses from their rulers from which no one will escape but a man who knows God's religion and strives on its behalf with his tongue, his hand and his heart, that being the one who will have surpassing felicity in Heaven; a man who knows God's religion and believes in it; and a man who knows God's religion but keeps quiet about it, who if he sees some one doing good loves him for it; that one will escape for all that he kept concealed in his heart."

Umar stated that once he went to see the Holy Prophet and found him lying on a reed mat without any cover. The marks of the mat were on the body of the Holy Prophet. The room was bare and there was no sign of any comfort.

Umar said to the Holy Prophet:

"O Messenger of God supplicate God to enrich your people for He has enriched the Persians and the Byzantines, and yet they worship him not."

The Holy Prophet replied, "Is that how you feel, Ibn-ul-Khattab? These people have been given their good things in advance in the present world. Are you not pleased that they should have the present world, and we should have the next?"

Umar said that he went one day to the Prophet's mosque, and in the way found Mu'adh b Jabal sitting on the Prophet's grave weeping. Umar asked him what was making him weep and he replied that it was something which he had heard from God's Messenger. He had heard him say, "A little hypocrisy is polytheism, and any one who is hostile to a friend of God has gone forth to fight with God. God loves the upright, pious and retiring ones who are not missed when they are absent, and are not given invitations or treated with honour when they are present. Their hearts are the lamps of guidance and they come forth from every dusty and dark place."