Then Omar took it and read it, and the strength and beauty of it smote him.  He felt upon him the insistence of a divine command, and straightway asked to be led before Mahomet that he might unburden his conviction to him.  He girt on his sword and came to the Prophet’s house.  As he rapped upon the door a Companion of Mahomet’s looked through the lattice, and at the sight of Omar with buckled sword fled in despair to his master.  But Mahomet replied: 

“Let him enter; if he bring good tidings we will reward him; if he bring bad news, we will smite him, yea, with his own sword.”

So the door was opened and Mahomet advanced, asking what was his mission.  Omar answered: 

“O Prophet of God, I am come to confess that I believe in Allah and in his Prophet.”

“Allah Akbar!” (God is great) replied Mahomet gravely, and all the household knew that Omar had become one of themselves.

The conversion of Omar was infinitely important to Islam, and the adherence of this impetuous and dauntless mind was directly due to the strength and steadfastness of Mahomet’s faith in himself and his message.  Omar was an influential personage among the Kureisch, quick-tempered, but keen as steel, and rejoicing in strife; he stands out among the many warrior-souls to whom Islam gave the opportunity of tasting in its fullness “the splendour of spears.”  Mahomet had indeed gathered around him a group of men who were remarkable for their character and influence upon Islam.  Ali, the warrior par excellence, Abu Bekr, statesman and counsellor, Othman the soldier, Hamza and Omar, are not merely blind followers, but forceful personalities, contributing each in his own manner towards those assets of endurance, leadership, and unshaken faith which ensured the continuance of the Medinan colony and its ultimate victory over the Kureisch.

Omar’s conversion did not have the effect of softening the Kureischite fury.  On the contrary, the event seems to have stimulated them to further persecution, as if they had some foreshadowings of their waning power, and had determined with a desperate energy to quell for ever, if it might be, this discord in their midst.  Their next step was to try an introduce the political element into this conflict of faiths by putting a ban upon the house of Hashim and confining it to Abu Talib’s quarter of Sheb.  This act, instigated mainly by Abu Jahl, who now becomes prominent as the most terrible of Mahomet’s persecutors, had a very notable effect upon his position as well as upon the qualities of the cause for which his party was contending.

For the first time the political aspect of Islam obtrudes itself.  Mahomet’s followers are now not only the opponents of the Kureischite faith and the enemies of their idols, but they are also their political foes, and have drawn the whole house of Hashim into faction against the ruling power—­the Omeyyad house.  Moreover, Mahomet and his companions, now shut up and almost besieged within a definite quarter of the city, were precluded from all attempts to spread their faith.  Mahomet had secured his little company of followers, but cut off from the rest of the city his cause remained stationary, neither gaining nor losing adherents, during the years 617-619.