Umar Ibn Al-Khattab: His Life and Times (Anwar Al-Awlaki, 2007)

[madali]

Umar Ibn Al-Khattab: His Life and Times (Anwar Al-Awlaki, 2007)

Anwar Al-Awlaki is now dead. He was in Yemen, when he was killed by American drones, causing some slight controversy, given that he was American. Anwar being American, makes his audio speeches easy to listen to, his audio books on Prophet Mohammad was excellent, he was biased, but unapologically biased. He told it like it was, and didn’t hide any gritty details, so devoted was he to his beliefs, that he didn’t feel any need to excuse any part of it. A refreshing change from all the other western Islamic preachers and such.

After his audiobook on the life of Abu Bakr, I was looking forward to the one on Umar, who I figured would be a more interesting Khalifa then Abu Bakr. In the spin-offs from the Propher Mohammad trilogy, I figured a story on Umar would be better, since Abu Bakr was a bit underwhelming. To my surprise, the story of Umar’s Khalifa was not as interesting as I thought. Umar seemed more like a badass before being a Khalifa, but the responsibility of being a leader forced him to tone down, and to balance his natural aggressiveness with more leadership qualities. Some interesting lessons, but after Prophet Mohammad’s story, the Khalifas’ lives weren’t as thrilling.

3/5

[ayaa1977]

Actually Abu Bakr was a badass when he needed to. Remember he was the one who insisted on fighting the tribes after they refused to pay Zakat after Prophet Mohammed PBUH died, while Omar and the rest of Messengers followers advised diplomacy.

[madali]

Abu Bakr also used the badassest insult ever...