The Night Patrol of Umar ibn Khattab R. A.

 The Night Patrol of Umar ibn Khattab R. A. 

During one of his patrols, he saw a wool tent, it wasn’t there before, this is the first time he saw the tent, so he said let’s go and check that tent out. So he goes there and he finds a man sitting out of the tent, and there was a woman in the tent and she was moaning in pain. So ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab asked the man, “What’s going on?” The man said “May Allah reward you; carry on with your business.” He doesn’t know that this is ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said “I insist on you to tell me what is happening.” He said, “This woman, my wife, is giving birth.” ‘Umar bin al-Khattab asked “Is there anyone with her?” He said “No, she is alone.”

So this poor woman was delivering and they were on a journey – they were traveling – so they had to stop there and they set their tent; they knew nobody in Madinah, they had no one to help them, and the man was just sitting outside and his wife was delivering. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab immediately left and he went back home. He went to his wife Umm Kulthum, he told her, “Do you want to accept some good that Allah ‘Azza wa Jall has sent to you?” Do you want to accept some rewards that Allah has sent to you? She said “Yes, if that pleases you.” He said “Come with me, there is a woman who is delivering.” He then carries with him some flour, and also some fat animal shortening – they used to cook the flour in water and they would add to it animal fat, and they would mix it together. So they went there, Umm Kulthum went in the tent, inside the tent to help this woman, and ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab sat outside and he told the man “Set a fire for me”, make a fire. So the man made a fire, and then ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab started cooking. While he was cooking his wife calls him from inside the tent and says “Ya Ameer Al-Mumineen, congratulate your friend, Allah has blessed him with a boy.”

Now the man, was obviously very happy to hear the news, but there was something that was quite terrifying to him; he heard this woman say “Ya Ameer Al-Mumineen“, so he started walking away from ‘Umar – ‘Who am I dealing with, I can’t believe it, this is the Khalifah?!’ – ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “Don’t be afraid, come back, come here, help me out, take this pot and you have your dinner and take it to your wife.” So the man put the pot next to the entrance of the tent, so Umm Kulthum took it, and she was the one feeding the woman who just delivered. Then before they left, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab told him, “Tomorrow morning you come to me and I’ll give you the pension -or the payment- for your newborn child.”