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Companions of the Prophet ﷺ · 2 of 8
عمر بن الخطاب
Umar ibn al-Khattab
Al-Faruq — the criterion between truth and falsehood — and the second caliph
d. 23 AH / 644 CE · Madinah
Relationship to the Prophet ﷺ
Father of the Prophet’s ﷺ wife Hafsa; one of his two chief advisers alongside Abu Bakr.
Known for
A fearsome opponent of Islam who became one of its mightiest defenders — from the day he converted, the sirah records, the Muslims first prayed openly at the Ka’bah.
Caliphate
Second caliph, 13–23 AH (634–644 CE)
Their story
Umar of Banu Adi was among the harshest persecutors of the early Muslims — until, around the sixth year of the prophethood, he set out with drawn sword and was turned instead toward his own sister’s house, where he heard verses of Surah Ta-Ha being recited. Shaken, he went straight to the Prophet ﷺ and declared his Islam. The Muslims, until then worshipping in secret, walked out and prayed openly at the Ka’bah for the first time.
In Madinah he became one of the Prophet’s ﷺ two constant advisers, and the Quran repeatedly confirmed positions Umar had voiced first — among them the adoption of Ibrahim’s station as a place of prayer (2:125) and the veiling of the Prophet’s wives. He fought at Badr, Uhud, the Trench, and every major engagement after them.
His daughter Hafsa married the Prophet ﷺ after being widowed at Badr, binding the two men as family. Blunt where Abu Bakr was gentle, Umar’s candour was so valued that the Prophet ﷺ consulted the pair on nearly everything; the sirah remembers them seated at his right and left.
At the Prophet’s ﷺ death, it was Umar who stood devastated in denial — and Abu Bakr who calmed him with the verse "Muhammad is only a messenger; messengers before him have passed away" (3:144). He gave Abu Bakr his hand first in the pledge of the caliphate, then served as his closest counsellor, urging (successfully) the first written collection of the Quran.
Hadith — Umar’s candour, Abu Bakr’s firmness
When some tribes withheld the zakat after the Prophet’s ﷺ death, Umar openly questioned fighting people who professed the shahadah — and Abu Bakr answered that zakat is the due of wealth and he would fight whoever separated it from prayer. Umar later said: "I saw that Allah had opened Abu Bakr’s chest to the truth, and I knew it was right."
His ten-year caliphate transformed Islam from an Arabian polity into a world power: Damascus and Syria after Yarmouk (15 AH), Iraq and then Persia after Qadisiyyah (≈15 AH) and Nahavand (21 AH), Egypt under Amr ibn al-As (≈20–21 AH), and Jerusalem (≈16 AH / 638 CE) — which he entered on foot, receiving the city’s keys peacefully and guaranteeing its Christians their churches and safety in a written covenant.
He built the machinery the expansion required: the Hijri calendar, the diwan (public register and stipends), garrison cities of Kufa and Basra, appointed judges, and the nightly patrols he famously walked himself — the sirah is full of accounts of Umar carrying grain on his own back to a hungry family. He was stabbed by a Persian slave, Abu Lu’lu’ah, while leading Fajr prayer, and died asking that the caliphate be settled by consultation among six companions. He was buried beside the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr.
Battles & campaigns
Badr (2 AH), Uhud (3 AH), the Trench (5 AH), Khaybar (7 AH), Conquest of Makkah (8 AH), Hunayn (8 AH), Tabuk (9 AH) — fought in every major campaign of the Prophet’s ﷺ era.
As caliph — Yarmouk (15 AH): the decisive defeat of Byzantium in Syria.
Al-Qadisiyyah (≈15 AH) and Nahavand (21 AH): the battles that ended Sasanian Persia.
Jerusalem (≈16 AH): taken by peaceful surrender, with a written covenant of protection.
Drawn from the Quran, the Sahih collections (each hadith citation verified against the copies hosted on this site), and the established sirah literature. Events of the later fitna era are mentioned only briefly, with respect for all the companions — may Allah be pleased with them all.