Futuhusham_-_The_Islamic_Conquest_of_Syria_-_Al_Waqidi

Futuhushdm
'AJ.shah narrates:
By Allah! As soon as 'Vmar ~ became the Khalifah he set to work with great effort
and without any arrogance. His teeth would bite into nothing besides barley bread
and salt and he would often have olive oil and dried dates too. Sometimes he would
have butter and say, "I hate olive oil and barley bread, but hunger today is lighter than
the fire of Hell. Whoever falls therein never dies nor does he find any relief. Its stay
is long, its punishment severe, its drink is pus and no permission is given to them to
offer excuses."
During his rule he systematised the military, despatched armies, conquered many
lands and built cities. May Allan be pleased with him.
2) The assassin
I (al-Waqidi) have been informed that when Herac1ius heard of 'Vmar ~ succeeding
AbU Bakr ~, he summoned all the patricians, princes of the realm and ministers. He
then stood to address them, standing on a pulpit erected for him in a church, "0
Romans, this is what I warned you about, but you would not listen. With the
ascension ofthis brown man, the situation will only worsen. The time has drawn near
for a conqueror to come who will resemble Noah. I swear by God that he will most
certainly rule what is beneath this platform on which I stand. Beware! Beware before
this occurs and great harm befalls, palaces are demolished, priests are massacred and
church bells smashed. This is a man of war who will bring grief to Rome and Persia.
He abstains from the world and is stem against those who do not follow his religion
but follow what they like. I have hope that you will triumph if you order the good
and forbid the bad, leave injustice, follow Christ in all that is compulsory to obey,
abstain from adultery and fornication and, in fact, all kinds of sinning. If you refuse
and stick to corruption, sinning, wickedness and worldly passions, God will give
your enemy power over you and inflict you with that over which you have no power.
I know that the religion of these people will triumph over every other religion for as
long as they do not change, so either you go to their religion or submit and pay
Jizyah."
As soon as they heard these words they rushed towards him, intending to kill him but
he managed to pacify them and said, "I merely wished to see how loyal you are to
your religion and if fear of the 'Arabs is firmly embedded in your hearts or not."
Then he called a Christian 'Arab, Iall'ah bin Maran, and promised him great wealth
saying, "Go immediately to Yathrib and see if you can kill 'Vmar bin al-Khagab."
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