In one of the houses of Madinah, ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allaah be pleased with him, was sitting with a group of his companions. He asked them: “Make a wish”, one of them said, “I wish to have as much gold as would fill this whole house, so that I could spend it in Jihaad”; then again ‘Umar asked: “Make a wish”, another man said, “I wished that this house was full of jewels and pearls so that I could spend it all in Jihaad and charity for the sake of Allaah”; ‘Umar asked for the third time: “Make a wish”, his companions said: “We don’t know what to say, O leader of the believers”; Thereupon ‘Umar said, “I wish that this house was full of men like Abu ‘Ubaydah Ibn Al-Jarraah, Mu’aadh bin Jabal and Saalim who works for Abu Hudhayfah in order to use them to spread the word of Allaah”



May Allah have mercy on ‘Umar - the inspired. He definitely knew how true civilizations are established, how great missions succeed and how to revive dead nations!



Although nations and missions need resources in order to be successful, they also need planners and those who have determined hearts in order to fully utilise these resources. In fact the greatest of all needs is that for real men.



O Muslims! Real men are very rare to find, they are as rare as precious minerals and jewels; to illustrate this, the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said: “Real men are as rare as a reliable strong camel that can endure the burden of long trips; you can hardly find one in a hundred” (Bukhaari)