As I looked at this photo [source] of Mohamed Morsi praying Juma’a in Italy, surrounded from three sides by his security detail, I remembered this beautiful story from the days of Omar Ibn El Khattab.

A messenger, dispatched by the ruler of Persia, arrived to Medina with the intent of delivering a message to the great and fearsome Omar Ibn El Khattab. He asked for the palace. He was told there was no palace. So he asked for Omar himself. “Oh, he’s probably the one sleeping over there under the tree”, he was told.

He reached said tree and saw a very regular-looking man, dozing off in the shade of a tree, covered in an old cloak. He went back to the man who pointed him. “Man, I’m asking about THE Omar, the Calife, the King!”.

“Well, umm, yes, that would be the one.”

He went back, looked at the man sleeping, with no security detail and no golden mantle, he stood there for a moment, and said

“Omar, you ruled, and you were just, thus you were safe, thus you slept”.

By | 2017-09-08T05:32:54+00:00 September 16th, 2012|Uncategorized|