Umar Farooq was the second Khalifa. He was a shining example of an ideal ruler. It is for this reason, Mahatma Gandhi, addressing newly elected legislators said that he would like them to emulate Umar Farooq. History is replete with anecdotes which demonstrated how great he was as an able and ideal administrator.
Without disclosing his identity he used to roam about during nights to find out the problems of people. One day he found a woman heating water and her children sitting around her were crying. Umar enquired about this to her and then she said that children were crying with hunger as she has nothing to feed them. To the question why she was heating water, she answered that she wants to create an impression in the minds of those young children that she was cooking food for them and she expected that tired children would go to sleep soon with empty stomach and then she could stop heating and go to sleep with empty stomach. The family was in utter poverty.
This gave a shock to Umer. He immediately rushed to the state warehouse where wheat was stocked and carried in his own shoulders a big packet of wheat and brought to the house of that woman. The caretaker of the warehouse insisted that he would carry the wheat; Umer did not allow him to do so saying that it was himself who will have to answer to God about the predicament of the woman and her children. Umer cooked the wheat, fed the woman and children and made permanent arrangement for their relief and that was Umer.
Justice under all circumstances.
