Islam, that means surrender to the Will of God, is an everlasting concept. Muslims assert that it is the pristine faith of mankind, subscribed to with the aid of the primary created humans, Adam and Eve and confirmed with the aid of the Messengers of God, which includes amongst others, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammed. Islam throws a undertaking to the network of believers to create a society “enjoining what is proper, forbidding what is inaccurate and believing in God”. Islamic history is a perpetual warfare to satisfy this assignment inside the matrix of human affairs. This battle is non-stop and incessant. Muslims via the centuries have struggled to rediscover the fountain from which the Prophet drank. The corruption that surfaces with time is challenged time and again and a corporal attempt is made at a renewal of faith. Hence, revivalist actions in Islam provide benchmarks from which subsequent historic activities may be measured and understood.
Omar bin Abdul Aziz, also regarded in history as Omar II, turned into the first revivalist Emir in Islamic records. After Muawiya, the individual of the Caliphate changed and dynastic rule was mounted. The corruption of the Omayyads reached its crescendo with Karbala. The Omayyads constructed lavish palaces, surrounded themselves with servants and maids, amassed substantial estates, dealt with the general public treasury as their privy handbag and lived like princes and kings. There become no accountability for their wealth or for his or her moves. The population had no say in the affairs of the nation. The Caliph changed into not nominated nor may want to he be puzzled. The human beings had been there merely to obey the strongman, pay taxes and serve inside the military.
Omar bin Abdul Aziz have become the Emir through a accident of records. When the Omayyad Emir Sulaiman (714-717) lay on his deathbed, he was advised that he could earn the pride of God with the aid of following the example of the early Caliphs and nominating someone besides one of his very own sons as the subsequent Emir. He consequently dictated in his will that Omar bin Abdul Aziz, a far off cousin, changed into to succeed him and Omar bin Abdul Aziz turned into to be accompanied by using Yazid bin Abdul Malik. Omar bin Abdul Aziz changed into a man of polish and experience, having served because the governor of Egypt and Madina for more than twenty-two years. He have been knowledgeable and skilled with the aid of a famous pupil of the age, Saleh bin Kaisan. Before his accession to the Caliphate, Omar bin Abdul Aziz become a speeding younger guy, fond of style and perfume. But while he widely wide-spread the responsibilities of Caliphate, he proved to be the maximum pious, in a position, a long way-sighted and responsible of all of the Omayyad Emirs.
Indeed, Omar bin Abdul Aziz set out to reform the complete political, social and cultural edifice of the community and to bring again the transcendental values that had ruled the Islamic state in its infancy. He started by way of putting an amazing example in his own character. When information reached him of his nomination to the Caliphate, he addressed the people, “O people! The duties of the Caliphate were thrust upon me without my desire or your consent. If you select to pick a person else as the Caliph, I will without delay step aside and will assist your choice”. Such speak became a breath of sparkling air to the public. They unanimously elected him.
Omar bin Abdul Aziz discarded his lavish life style and followed a very ascetic life after the example of Abu Dhar Ghifari, a famous companion of the Prophet. Abu Dhar is understood in history as one of the earliest mystics and Sufis in Islam who retired from public lifestyles in Madina during the period of Uthman (r) and lived in a hermitage far far from the capital. Omar bin Abdul Aziz discarded all of the pompous appendages of a princely existence–servants, slaves, maids, horses, palaces, golden gowns and landed estates–and again them to the public treasury. His circle of relatives and loved ones were given the equal orders. The lawn of Fidak provides a great instance. This become a grove of fingers owned by way of the Prophet. The Prophet’s daughter Fatima (r) had asked for this lawn as an inheritance but the Prophet had declined saying that what a Prophet owned belonged to the whole community. Fatima(r) had pressed her claim before Abu Bakr (r) but Abu Bakr (r) had denied the request saying that he couldn't conform to something that the Prophet had not agreed to. After the Caliphate of Ali (r), Fidak have been made a private estate of the Omayyads. Omar restored Fidak to the general public treasury, as a agree with for the whole network.
The Omayyads had no accountability to the treasury. To assist their lavish lifestyles styles, they amassed huge taxes from Persia and Egypt. They forced investors to sell them their merchandise at discount costs. The Emir’s appointees obtained items of gold and silver in go back for favors. Omar reversed the manner. Omar abolished such practices, punished corrupt officials and installed strict duty.
Some Omayyad officers, under the influence of alcohol with power, mistreated the conquered peoples. Oftentimes, their property become confiscated without due manner of law. Contrary to the injunctions of the Shariah, even though humans in the new territories well-known Islam, they persevered to be concern to Jizya. Those who refused to pay the taxes have been concern to harsh punishment. Omar abolished these practices and ensured equity within the series of taxes. Gone become the oppression of Hajjaj in Iraq and Qurrah bin Shareek in Egypt. The populace spoke back with enthusiastic assist of the brand new Caliph. Production accelerated. Ibn Kathir data that thanks to the reforms undertaken through Omar, the once a year sales from Persia by myself improved from 28 million dirhams to 124 million dirhams.
Following the example of the Prophet, Omar bin Abdul Aziz despatched out emissaries to China and Tibet, inviting their rulers to accept Islam. It was all through the time of Omar bin Abdul Aziz that Islam took roots and became generic by a huge segment of the populace of Persia and Egypt. When the officials complained that due to conversions, the jizya revenues of the country had experienced a steep decline, Omar wrote back announcing that he had conventional the Caliphate to invite human beings to Islam and no longer to emerge as a tax collector. The infusion of non-Arabs in large range into the fold of Islam shifted the center of gravity of the empire from Madina and Damascus to Persia and Egypt. As we will complicated in later chapters, this improvement had far attaining consequences during the Abbasid revolution (750) and the evolution of the faculties of Fiqh (760-860).
Omar bin Abdul Aziz became a pupil of the primary rank and surrounded himself with superb pupils like Muhammed bin Kaab and Maimun bin Mehran. He offered stipends to teachers and recommended schooling. Through his non-public example, he inculcated piety, steadfastness, enterprise ethics and moral rectitude in the fashionable populace. His reforms included strict abolition of consuming, forbidding public nudity, elimination of combined lavatories for men and women and fair dispensation of Zakat. He undertook large public works in Persia, Khorasan and North Africa, consisting of the development of canals, roads, relaxation houses for travelers and scientific dispensaries.
Omar bin Abdel Aziz was the first Caliph to fee a translation of the Qur’an from Arabic into any other language. Upon the request of the Raja (king) of Sindh (in contemporary day Pakistan), Omar bin Abdel Aziz had the Qur’an translated into the ancient Sindhi language and had it sent to the Raja (718 CE). To positioned this occasion into historical context, this became within ten years of the conquest of Sindh and Multan by way of Muhammed bin Qasim and the conquest of Spain via Tariq and Musa.
Omar bin Abdul Aziz become additionally the first Emir to try a severe reconciliation of political and non secular differences among Muslims. Since the time of Muawiya, it had grow to be normal for khatibs to insult the call of Ali ibn Abu Talib (r) in Friday sermons. Omar bin Abdul Aziz abolished this obnoxious practice and decreed rather that the following passage from the Qur’an be read instead: “God commands you to exercise justice, enjoins you to help and assist your family and He forbids obscenity, evil or oppression, so you may also remember Him” (Qur’an, sixteen:90). It is that this passage that is nonetheless recited in Friday sermons across the world. He treated Bani Hashim and the Shi’as with fairness and dignity. He even prolonged his hand to the Kharijites. According to Ibn Kathir, he wrote to the Kharijite leader Bostam, inviting him to an open dialogue approximately the Caliphate of Uthman (r) and Ali (r). He went thus far as to stipulate that ought to Bostam persuade him, Omar could willingly repent and alternate his approaches. Bostam despatched of his emissaries to the Caliph. During the discussions, one of the emissaries customary that Omar become right and gave up Kharijite extremism. The different went lower back unconvinced. Even so, the Caliph did no longer persecute the man.
Omar bin Abdul Aziz became the primary Muslim ruler who moved his horizons from outside conquests to internal revival. He recalled his armies from the borders of France, India and the outskirts of Constantinople. There were few inner uprisings and disturbances at some stage in his Caliphate. Islam had momentarily became its horizons on its personal soul, to reflect upon its historic condition and refill its moral reservoir. Faith flourished, as it had all through the duration of Omar ibn al Khattab (r). It is for these reasons that historians seek advice from Omar bin Abdul Aziz as Omar II and classify him because the fifth of the rightly guided Caliphs, after Abu Bakr (r), Omar (r), Uthman (r) and Ali (r).
But greed does now not give up its turf to faith without a conflict. The reforms of Omar II were an excessive amount of for the disgruntled Omayyads and the rich merchants. Omar II became poisoned and he died within the year 719, after a rule that lasted most effective two and a 1/2 years. He turned into thirty-nine years vintage at the time of his dying. And with him died the closing chance for Omayyad rule.
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