Abu Bekr appoints Omar his successor.
Thereupon Abu Bekr called for Othmân and dictated an ordinance appointing Omar his successor. He fainted while it was being written down. On recovering, he bade Othmân to read it over. When he had heard it all, he was satisfied, and praised the Lord; ‘for,’ said he, ‘I saw thee apprehensive lest, if in the swoon I had passed away, then the people had been left in doubt.’ Upon this, he desired that the ordinance should be read in the hearing of the citizens, who had assembled in the court of the Great Mosque. Omar himself was present, and hushed the noise, that they might hear. Then, desiring to obtain the assent of the people, the dying Caliph bade his wife Asma raise him up to the window (for the Caliph’s house looked out upon the court); so she bore him, in her beautifully tattooed arms, to the window, from whence, with a great effort, he called out: ‘Are ye satisfied with him whom I have appointed over you? It is none of mine own kin, but Omar, son of Khattâb. Verily I have done my best to choose the fittest. Wherefore, ye will obey him loyally.’ The people answered with one voice, ‘Yea, we will obey.’[185]
His death, 21st Jumâd II., A.H. XIII. August 22, A.D. 634.
To the end the mind of Abu Bekr remained clear and vigorous. On the last day of his life, he gave audience, as we have seen, to Mothanna, and, grasping the critical state of affairs, commanded Omar to raise, with all despatch, a levy for Irâc. During his illness he recited these verses on the vanity of life:
There is none that owneth herds or camels but must leave them to his heir; And whosoever taketh spoil, one day he shall be spoiled of the same. Every traveller, wheresoe’er he wander and however far, returneth; Excepting only the pathway of death, from which there is no return.
At another time one repeated verses from a heathen poet supposed to be appropriate to the occasion. Abu Bekr was displeased, and said: ‘Not so; say rather (and he quoted from a passage of the Corân relating to death and judgment)—Then the agony of death shall come in truth. This, O man, is what thou soughtest to avoid.’[186]
His last act was to summon Omar to his bedside, and, as his dying charge, to counsel him, which he did at great length, to temper hardness and severity with mildness and moderation. Shortly after, he sank, and feeling the agony approach, breathed his last with these words: ‘Lord, make me to die a true believer. Take me to join the blessed ones on high!’[187]
and burial.
Abu Bekr died on August 22, A.D. 634, having reigned two years and three months.[188] His body was laid out, in pursuance of his own wish, by the loving hands of Asma, and of Abd al Rahmân, his son; and he was wound in the same clothes in which he died; ‘for,’ said he, ‘new clothes befit the living, but old the mouldering body.’[189] The same Companions that bore the Prophet’s bier bore also that of Abu Bekr; and they laid him in the same grave, the Caliph’s head resting by his Master’s shoulder. Omar performed the funeral service, praying, as was customary, over the bier. The funeral procession had not far to go; it had only to cross the area in front of the Great Mosque; for Abu Bekr died in the house appointed for him by Mahomet opposite his own, and looking out, like it, upon the open court of the Sanctuary.[190]
Abu Bekr’s character. Simple life at Al Sunh.