NOT BEING DECEIVED BY PRAISE

NOT BEING DECEIVED BY PRAISE

1988 6 June 10 NOT BEING DECEIVED BY PRAISE (183) Dhiba Ibn Mahsan, a follower of the Companions, says that he once said to Umer that he was better than Abu Bakr. On hearing this, Umer started weeping. “By God,” he said, “one night and one day of Abu Bakr’s are better than the whole life of Umer. Shall I tell you which night and day they were?” Dhiba asked him to do so. “It was the night the Prophet fled from the people of Mecca, along with Abu Bakr, and the day the Prophet died and Arab tribes apostatized, saying that they would pray but would not pay the poor due. I went to Abu Bakr and asked him, as successor of the Prophet, to be lenient with them. He told me that I had been brave in the time of ignorance, but had become a coward in the time of Islam. He swore a solemn oath, if they refused to pay even one piece of rope that was due from them, then he would fight against them as long as he had the power to hold a sword in his hand.