One day, Umar (RA) is addressing the people when a man asks permission to speak.

What follows is an attack: "By Allah, you do not give us enough, nor do you judge among us with justice!"

You could see the anger building in Umar's (RA) face.

This was the man who had dedicated his life to justice, who held his own son to the same standards as everyone else, who lost sleep over those under his rule.

And now he was being publicly accused of the very injustices he had spent years fighting.

The familiar intensity and anger began to rise.

But then someone in the crowd called out with a single Quranic verse:

"O Commander of the Believers: 'Show forgiveness, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant.'"

Suddenly, it was as if the man had never said anything to him.

The anger that had been building, the justifiable outrage, the very human desire to defend oneself, all of it vanished instantly.

Not gradually, not with visible effort to control himself, but immediately and completely.

The narrator of this story adds, "Umar (RA) was always stopped by the Book of Allah. He adhered to it so completely, so when the Quran told him to stop, he stopped right away."

This wasn't just a single moment of self-control.

Throughout Umar's (RA) leadership, he learned and adapted Quranic wisdom, choosing mercy over punishment and forgiveness over retribution.

He famously suspended the punishment for theft during times of famine, reasoning that society's failure to provide for people's basic needs created circumstances that required mercy rather than strict legal application.

His judicial philosophy is summed up in this statement.

He said, "For me to refrain from punishment by giving people the benefit of the doubt is more beloved to me than applying punishment when I have doubts about their guilt."

He built systems that had built-in pauses, opportunities for mercy, and space for reconsideration.

This image is beautiful: the world's most powerful man being instantly "stopped" by a verse from the Quran.

Not slowed down, not given pause to think it over, but completely halted in his tracks by divine guidance.

His true strength was being so secure in his submission to Allah that he could abandon his emotional reactions and lower desires the moment he recognized a higher standard being presented.