The Caliph Who Fed the Orphans

The story of ʿUmar al-Fārūq with the mother of orphans

The Caliph al-Fārūq, Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, went out, as was his habit, to check on the condition of his subjects — as befits the just ruler who cares for his people — and ... he paid attention to their affairs with his companion ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf.

The just Caliph walked on foot with his companion until from afar in the desert he saw a fire burning; they walked toward it to inquire about it and to learn who tended it.

When he reached it he found a woman sitting in front of the fire with a large pot on it and her children around her. While he was thus, he heard one of her boys say:

“— Mother... mother.”

She looked at him and asked tenderly:

“— Yes, my son?”

He said, his small voice weakened:

“— I am hungry, mother; I want to eat something.”

Then the voice of his second brother rose saying the same as his brother:

“— Mother, I am almost dying of hunger, I beg you, mother, has the food been prepared? We have been waiting for a long time.”

A third replied, saying:

“— Me too, mother; when will our food be cooked?”

The mother answered, her heart almost breaking with sorrow as she realized she had nothing to give them:

“— It will be ready soon, my loved ones; just good patience, and God will provide you with good food. Will you not be patient, my little ones?”

The children quieted and returned to the boring waiting again.

The Commander of the Faithful stood before them, astonishment filling his soul — he stood collapsed, his feet scarcely able to carry him because of what he saw.

He said with compassion and his eyes overflowing with tears as if heaven’s water had poured out and his heart filled with sorrow and grief:

“— O mother of the children, what is this pot?”

The woman said sadly, not knowing that he was the Commander of the Faithful, the ruler to whom all the lands of Islam owed allegiance and obedience after God and His Messenger:

“— O man, my children’s hunger has increased and I have no food to present to them. I put water in the pot and put some pebbles in it and I set the pot on the fire and there is nothing in it but water and pebbles, and I keep the children busy until they fall asleep hungry.”

ʿUmar, may God be pleased with him, said:

“— What do you complain of, O servant of God?”

She said to him:

“— By God, by ʿUmar” (meaning: complain to God, ʿUmar, may God be pleased with him).

This phrase fell upon the heart of the just ruler ʿUmar like a thunderbolt; he had not imagined that he would one day find himself in such a situation, he the just ruler and Commander of the Faithful whom they had pledged to to look after their affairs.

He said to her:

“— And what is the matter with ʿUmar, O servant of God?”

She said:

“— He takes charge of our affairs and neglects us, and we are his people and his subjects.”

ʿUmar heard all this and his heart was broken by these words.

He could do nothing but hasten to the treasury (Bayt al-Māl) of the Muslims and said to the woman before departing:

“— Do not grieve, O servant of God; your children will not sleep tonight except having eaten, God willing.”

He entered the flour stores and took a sack and said to the guard:

“— Carry this sack on me.”

The guard asked, puzzled:

“— For whom — on you or on me, O Commander of the Faithful?”

ʿUmar said:

“— On me.”

The guard repeated his question in surprise, for it was too much to ask the Commander of the Faithful to walk carrying a sack on his back.

ʿUmar said to him:

“— Put the sack on me; you will not carry my sins on the Day of Resurrection if my Lord asks me about the mother of the orphans.”

The guard put the sack on the Commander of the Faithful’s back and ʿUmar set off quickly toward the woman and her children.

He approached the mother and her sons and stood behind a rock and began observing them. His companion said to him: “Let us return to the house, O Commander of the Faithful, for the cold is severe.”

ʿUmar said:

“— No, by God, I will not leave this place except that I leave the children laughing, whereas I found them earlier weeping.”

Those words came from a noble heart trained in loving others and taught compassion and gentleness in the school of the honorable Prophethood. ʿUmar went and prepared the food himself for the orphans and when they had eaten and he was reassured about them —

A thread of light had begun to invade the sky and the darkness descended toward the wide horizon to make way for the morning breezes and the faint light of dawn slipping between the threads of darkness and moving gently over the damp sand.

Then the Commander of the Faithful and his companion returned to the mosque for the dawn prayer, and how much he wept, may God be pleased with him, because of how deeply he was affected by what had happened that strange night.

The next day he asked that the woman he had seen the previous day be called.

ʿUmar, may God be pleased with him, sat with beside him the noble companion ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the noble companion Ibn Masʿūd.

ʿAlī, may God be pleased with him, would say to ʿUmar, “O ʿUmar,” and Ibn Masʿūd, may God be pleased with him, would say, “O ʿUmar.”

The woman looked at the man they called ʿUmar and realized he was the man who had cooked dinner for her children and he was the man to whom she had said those harsh words; she felt ashamed.

When ʿUmar saw the paleness of shame on her and sensed her embarrassment he said:

“— Do not worry, my sister. I did not call you to this place except that you sell me your wrong (injustice) and forgive me for what I did.”

She said:

“— I ask forgiveness, O Commander of the Faithful.”

He said:

“— I must buy this wrong from you.”

He bought it for six hundred dirhams from his own money and wrote a paper witnessing that, witnessed by ʿAlī and Ibn Masʿūd.

Then he said to those around him:

“If I die, place it in my shroud so that I may meet God with it.”