Umar Ibn AlKhattab - A Golden Leader

Esthikar Khan:

A Committed Father, and Obedient Children
One night Umar bn AlKhattab called all his children
and addressed them thus: “I know you do not know
why I have called upon you this night. Some of you
may be thinking: our father is now Ameerul
Mumineen and we are his children. So, when any of
you goes about his business, he would expect
people to give him priority. I want you to know that
your father used to tend to his father’s camels,
and that his father used to ill-treat him and beat
him up. Your father used to collect firewood for his
aunts and they would give him a handful of dates.
Our clan, Adiy, were not of any distinction in
Quraysh. They were well below other clans such as
Abd Manaf, Makhzoom, and Jumah. God Has
elevated us by Islam and by submission to Him
alone. People will now look at you just as bird
looks at meat. If you come to grab it, they will grab
with you, and if you refrain, they refrain. If I issue
an order prohibiting something on people, then you
must be the first to refrain from it. By God, if any
one of you is brought to me, having done what I
have ordered people to refrain, I will double his
punishment because of his relation to me. Until one
of you will say: how I wish our father has not
assumed the leadership of the Muslim state, so
that we would be like any other person. Do you
understand what I have said?” They all answered,
“Yes.”