Futuhusham_-_The_Islamic_Conquest_of_Syria_-_Al_Waqidi

Part 2: liims..
Abu 'Ubaydah ss; : I swear that I know nothing of that. 0 Muslims, whoever pierced
the statue's eyes should inform us.
Muslims: 0 commander, AbU Jandalah and Sahl bin 'Amr did it accidently.
AbU 'Ubaydah es : They did it unintentionally. What will now satisfy you against us?
Christians: We will not be satisfied until we have gouged out the eyes of your king.
AbU 'Ubaydah ss : I present myself. Do unto me as was done to your statue.
Christians: No! We want your great king who rules all the 'Arabs.
AbU 'Ubaydah es : The Khalifah's eye will be safe from that.
The Muslims were furious at what the Christians said regarding 'Umar's • eye and
would have killed them had AbU 'Ubaydah • not prevented them. They said, "0
commander! We are under our leader and will willingly sacrifice ourselves for him.
We will take out our eyes in place of his."
Priest: Do not pierce 'Umar's eyes, nor yours. Instead, we will make a statue of the
commander on the pillar and do to it as you did to our Caesar's picture.
Muslims: We did it unintentionally while you are doing this intentionally.
AbU 'Ubaydah • : Restrain yourselves. If they will be satisfied with merely my
image then you have already accepted (greater than that). Let them not say that we
had an agreement with them and then betrayed them. These are a people without
integrity or intelligence.
He accepted their proposal so they made a statue of AbU 'Ubaydah es with glass eyes.
They placed it on the pillar. One of their horsemen angrily came and pierced it. The
priest then returned to inform Luke who addressed his people, "These people get
what they want in this manner."
21) 'Umar's • letter
Abu 'Ubaydah • continued raiding in all directions from Him~ awaiting the expiry
of the cease-fire. He delayed in sending any information to 'Umar as, who received
neither letter nor news on any conquests. 'Umar • was displeased and began to
suspect that he was becoming lax in Jihad, so he wrote the following letter to him:
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