Documents of the Right Word

inspiring appearance, he does not have a palace or ornamented
attirements. I paid attention to his clothes. There were eighteen
patches on them. It is impossible to stand against such an
unadorned hero who is always ready for war.” This fact is
recorded in the unbiased ones of the records of European
histories. The book Mesnevî, which is composed of more than
forty-seven thousand distichs, by Celâl-ed-dîn Rûmî [born in Belh
city in the hijrî year 604 and passed away in Konya in 672 (C.E.
1273)], has been translated into all the world’s popular languages.
The book gives the following information: The ambassador sent
forth by the Byzantine Emperor arrives in Medina and asks where
the Khalîfa’s palace is. Shown a cottage, he makes for it, enters
the yard, and there he sees the Khalîfa, lying on dry land using a
piece of stone as a cushion. Hadrat ’Umar Fârûq ‘radiy-Allâhu
ta’âlâ anh’ wakes up and looks at the ambassador, who begins to
shudder at the feeling of dread and the verve inspired by this first
look. Then he recovers, talks with the Khalîfa, and leaves. As he
leaves, the Khalîfa’s blessed wife gives the ambassador a present,
which she has prepared by borrowing eighteen dirhams of silver
coins from an acquaintance and which she asks him to take to the
emperor’s wife. In return, the emperor’s wife sends her a very
valuable gift ornamented with precious jewels. The Khalîfa, who
has never done injustice in anything he has done, gives his wife
only an eighteen dirham worth silver piece, sending the remainder
to the Bayt-ul-mâl.
’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would eat all his meals from an
earthenware bowl. One day the As-hâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihim-urridwân’
begged the Khalîfa’s daughter hadrat Hafsa and sent her
to the Khalîfa with the request, “O my father, the Emîr of
Believers! Hadrat Abû Bekr, the first Khalîfa, struggled with the
munâfiqs until his death, so much so that he did not even have time
for relief. Now you have conquered innumerous lands in the east
and west. Ambassadors from the world’s universal emperors come
to you and are fed in your generous kitchen. Mightn’t you as well
give up those earthenware bowls and use sets of copper or other
metal in the presence of these visitors?” This, of course, was the
Sahâba’s suggestion. Hadrat Khalîfa’s answer to this was, “O my
daughter Hafsâ ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’! I would chide anyone else for
this statement. As I have heard from you, our master Rasûlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ had a mattress stuffed with grasses.
Seeing that his blessed body was not comfortable on this bed, one
night you laid out a soft bed and made Rasûlullah lie and sleep on
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