Amir ul Momineen Hazrat Umar’s Wife Acts as a Midwife
The second Caliph of Islam, Amir-ul-Muminin Hazrat Umar (radiyallahu anhu) during the time of his Caliphate, used to patrol the streets and suburbs of Madinah himself during the night in order to keep watch. One night during his night-patrols, he saw a camel-hair tent pitched in an open space. He had never seen this particular tent before. Approaching the tent, he found an individual sitting outside, and heard a sort of groan coming out of the tent. Umar (radiyallahu anhu) greeted the stranger with assalamu-alaykum and sat down beside him.
Umar asked him, “Whence brother?” The person said: “I am from the desert, and a stranger to this place. I have come to ask Amir-ul-Muminin for some help in my need.” Umar asked: “Who is there groaning like this inside the tent?” The person replied: “Please mind your own business.”
Umar insisted, “Do tell me pleas. May be that I can help you.” The person said: “If you must know, inside there is my wife groaning with labour pains.” Umar asked, “Is there anybody else to attend her?” The person said, “No one.”
Umar (radiyallahu anhu), therefore, got up and hurried homewards. He broached the subject to his wife Umme Kulthum (Kulsoom) (radiyallahu anha): “Allah Ta’ala has brought you an opportunity to receive great blessings.” She asked, “What is it, O Amir-ul-Muminin?” Umar said, “Out there, a poor woman of the desert is in labour pain, with none to attend her.” She said, “I am read to attend her, if it may please you so.” Umme Kulthum (radiyallahu anha) was after all the daughter of Fatima (radiyallahu anha), and grand-daughter of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). Umar said: “Then you should make all due haste. Also take a pan, some butter, provisions and other things needed during the child-birth.”
Umme Kulthum (radiyallahu anha) did as she was bidden and left for the place where the tent was pitched. Umar fallowed her close. She entered the tent, while Umar made a fire and occupied himself with cooking something which those people could eat. After some time, Umme Kulthum (radiyallahu anha) called out from inside the tent, “Amir-ul-Muminin, congratulate your friend on the birth of a son.”
The person was much embarrassed when he heard the title of Amir-ul-Muminin and realized the position of the person who had been serving him. But Umar (radiyallahu anhu) put all his fears at rest, saying, “That is all right, there is nothing to worry about.”
He then placed the pan near the tent, asking his wife to take it and feed the woman. She fed her and returned the pan. Then Umar (radiyallahu anhu) asked the Bedouin to also eat, as he had kept awake the whole night. Having rendered this service, Umar (radiyallahu anhu) returned home with his wife, telling the person “Come to me tomorrow, and I shall see what I can do for you.”
Note: Is there any king, nay a petty chief, or even an ordinary middle-class person of our time, who will thus take his wife out at dead of night, and out in the wilderness, to attend a poor stranger woman, while he himself gladly engages in making a fire and cooking food. Leave the worldly rich aside, how many of the religious people would do that? We should realize that, unless we really follow in the footsteps of those Allah-fearing people whom we claim to look up to as our models, we cannot deserve and wish for the special blessings that Allah Ta’ala bestowed on them.