In that house, the disciples, clustering in union round the Prophet, were drinking in his words, when imperative knocks shook the door. One of the comrades rose up and, by a crack in the wood, caught sight of the terrible warrior, his sword dangling from his belt. Thunderstruck at this apparition, he came back to warn the Prophet who calmly told him: 'Bring him in here. If he cometh with good intentions, we will grant him generous welcome, but if evil designs guide his footsteps, we will kill him with his own sword.'
The companions having obeyed, Umar entered. Mohammad went to meet him, and coming face to face with him in the entrance-hall, he caught him by the collar and, with a sudden pull, dragged him into the midst of the company assembled. 'What is thy motive in coming here, O son of Al Khattab?' he asked. 'Dost thou still mean to remain wallowing in impiety until the wrath of the Almighty crusheth thee?'—'O Prophet!' answered Umar with unaccustomed humility, 'I come to declare my faith in Allah, His Messenger, and His Revelation.'—'Praise be to Allah! Glory to Him!' cried Mohammad. When his companions were informed of Umar's sudden conversion, they went their different ways, full of gratitude towards Him who had decreed it.
Umar was not a man to remain patient and conceal his convictions. In the street, he stopped the first passer-by he met, one Jamil ibn Mamar, of the Jumah tribe, and said to him: 'Dost know, O Jamil, that I have become a Mussulman?' The words were hardly out of his mouth, before Jamil, an incorrigible gossip, tucked his mantle tightly round him and ran to the Temple. 'O Assembly of the Quraish men!' shouted he to the idolaters who were there in groups. 'An astounding piece of news! The son of Al Khattab hath lost his reason!'—'Thou liest!' interrupted Umar who had followed him. 'On the contrary, I have set out on the Road to Salvation. I bear witness that there is no other God but Allah and that Mohammad is His Prophet!'
On hearing these words, amounting to insulting aggression, the Quraish bounded forward, as one man, to throw themselves on Umar, who steadfastly awaited their attack and a fearful struggle took place. The sun, darting its flaming rays on the fighters, forced them to desist for a short space of time. During the truce, Umar sat down on the ground, surrounded by his enemies whose threatening hands were stretched over his head. 'Do with me as ye will,' he told them in tones of the most scornful indifference, 'but, by Allah! if I were only at the head of three hundred Mussulmans, we should not be long before we wrested this Temple from you, and never would ye be able to retake it!'
The Friday Visit of Moslems to the Cemetery.
At this juncture, a respected old man, attired in a striped mantle and a sumptuously embroidered tunic, drew nigh, brought there by the tumult of which he asked the cause. 'Umar is demented,' was the answer.—'How so?' said the old man to the idolaters. 'If this man hath voluntarily chosen some religion different to yours, hath he not a right to do so? What want ye of him? Moreover, think ye that his relatives will not feel inclined to interfere on his behalf?' Struck more by the fear of reprisals than by the wisdom of his words, Umar's assailants clustering round him, dropped back and dispersed. It seemed as if a heavy cloak had been lifted from his shoulders.
No one, except Mohammad, dared to pray in public. Umar, caring naught for the fury he might cause, made up his mind to follow the Prophet's example, and every day, the sturdy warrior turned like Mohammad in the direction of the Bait-ul-Muquaddas (The Holy Temple of Jerusalem). Doing exactly the same as the Prophet, Umar took his stand between the angle of the Ka'bah where the Black Stone is enframed and the angle looking towards the Yaman; and there publicly said his prayers. Encouraged by this audacity, numerous were the Moslems who came to pray in public by his side, despite the angry glances of the Unbelievers, only restrained by the reputation of Umar who had earned the surname of "Al Faruq," (The Cleaver), because he had once cleft in twain an Arab who refused to bow down to a decision given out by the Prophet.