The Public Proclamation

When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb became Muslim, he asked and said: who has the biggest mouth in Makkah? Who is the one who cannot hold water in his mouth, the one who can publicise this news? ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb did not want to take it step by step; he wanted everyone to know that he had become Muslim. They told him: Jamīl al-Jumaḥī. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said, "At that time I was young, but I can still remember everything I see." He said, "I followed my father, and he went to Jamīl." ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb told Jamīl, he said, "Do you know what I did?" Jamīl said, "What?" He said, "I've become Muslim." ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said: immediately, as soon as Jamīl heard the news, he stood up, dragging his gown behind him — his gown was trailing — and he went running towards the mosque, the Kaʿbah, and he went in front of everyone and started screaming to the top of his voice, "O people of Quraysh, ʿUmar has become Muslim!" He actually said Ṣābiʾ, he became a Ṣābiʾ. So ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was trying to correct the announcement by saying, "No, I've become a Muslim." But this man was not hearing anything ʿUmar was saying; he was going around publicising the news — broadcast, it was on national television, everyone knew that ʿUmar had become Muslim.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said people started flowing towards him — Jamīl did a very good job, people were just flowing towards ʿUmar. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said, "So the people surrounded my father from every direction. They were beating him, and he was beating them." They were fighting for hours until the sun was right on top of their head and it was too hot for them to continue. And then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb went home, and the people were surrounding his house; they wanted to kill ʿUmar. This for them was unbelievable news — ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb becoming Muslim, that is not an easy thing, so they wanted to kill him. And ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said: "My father was at home, and then a man came and asked my father. He said, 'What is wrong?'" ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, "These people want to kill me." The man said, "No, they won't kill you." And then he stood outside and said, "Leave the man alone. Doesn't he have the right to choose the religion he wants to believe in? I am giving him protection." ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said immediately the people left. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said, and then later on, "I asked my father in Medina — I still had memories of what happened — I asked my father in Madīnah, 'Who was that man who came and helped you?'" ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, "O my son, that was al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, the father of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. He wasn't a Muslim. That was al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil." The tribe of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was very small and they were not very strong, but their allies were the tribe of al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil — they were the allies of Banū ʿAdī, family of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb — so he came in to help a member of his allies, and he gave ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb protection.