100 chapter three
One main factor in Caliph Umar’s life seemed to have influenced
his state policies: his late conversion to Islam. There was perhaps a
sense of deep regret in his mind that he was not one of the early
believers in the new religion. That was reflected in his high appre-
ciation of those who embraced Islam early before him especially
Caliph Abù-Bakr, who was, as already mentioned, the first man to
have believed in the Prophet and his message. In Caliph Umar’s
words, “Abù-Bakr was always ahead of me in Islam, even when I
thought I guaranteed a step ahead of him by donating half of my
wealth in the cause of God, I discovered that AbùBakr donated all
his wealth”, (Al-Suyùtì). “Precedence in Islam”, became one of the
main criteria which Caliph Umar used in evaluating Muslims morally
and financially. After he became the second caliph, or Amir of the
Faithful, we find caliph Umar, for example, using the same crite-
rion, “precedence in Islam”, and the degree of closeness to the
Prophet as two main bases, among others, in allocating stipends to
Muslims. Those who embraced Islam earlier than others are better
and, therefore, should be paid more. “I do not make those who
fought the Prophet equal to those who fought with him”, was the
most quoted Caliph Umar’s defense (Al- ̨abarì). For example, when
Umar’s son objected to him that the father and the caliph allocated
to him less stipends than that allocated to somebody else without
justifiable reasons, Umar’s reply was that the father of that person
was more loved by the Prophet than his father (Umar himself ).
Caliph did the same when he distributed 2,000 Dirham more to the
Prophet’s wife Aisha over above the rest of the Prophet’s widows
because of her being closest to the Prophet, though Aisha declined
the privileged payment (Al- ̨abarì). Another example was that when
some Muslims remarked that he gave other Muslims more stipends
than them even when the others were not in any way higher than
them in rank, position or tribal history, they only accepted the rul-
ing when they were told by the Caliph that the distribution was
according to precedence in Islam (ibid.). By contrast, Abù-Bakr’s
approach to the distribution of the stipends was completely different,
he gave to people equally, saying, “Precedence in Islam is to do
with God and He rewards for it, but stipends are to do with this
life and are meant to help people in their living” (ibid.).
The quality of Caliph Umar’s mind was particularly remarkable.
He was able to foresee consequences others, with the exception of
a very few, were not able to predict, and he could analyze situations