In reply to a woman whose nephew had died and who wanted to know God's command...

In reply to a woman whose nephew had died and who wanted to know God's command, the caliph answered: I have not seen anything concerning this topic in God's book or among the Prophet's speeches. Then he asked the woman to wait till he could ask the Prophet's close friends if they had heard anything in that regard. Moqayrah Ibn Shoaba was present in the session who said: I was present with the Prophet when he appointed one-third of the inheritance for one's grandmother.

[^8] The caliph's ignorance is not a source for surprise. It is surprising that he asked Moqayrah, a criminal, God's command in this respect. A thief was brought to the first caliph. He was amputated in one leg and one hand. The caliph ordered his other foot to be cut. But then the second caliph remarked that the Prophet's tradition was hand's amputation He changed his mind and obeyed the second caliph's view.

[^9] These two samples could easily reveal the caliph's limited knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence. It is clear that such a caliph with such a low of knowledge could not be a spiritual leader. The level of knowledge of the second caliph The number of the narrations which Omar narrates from the Prophet does not exceed 50.

The following story reveals the second caliph's jurisprudential knowledge: A man came to Omar and said: I became Junub [to become impure due to sexual intercourse or ejaculation] and I did not have access to water. What should I do? Omar answered: you do not have to pray accidentally, Ammar was present and addressing Omar, he said: do you remember you and I were junub in one of the Islamic wars and we did not have access to water?

I rubbed myself against dust and prayed, but you did not pray, do you remember? When I asked the Prophet about this problem, he replied: It would have been sufficient to touch the dust with your hands and then touch your face with those dusty hands. The caliph addressed Ammar, saying “fear God” (i.e. do not say such a thing). Then Ammar said: if it dissatisfies you, I will stop reporting this event[^10].

This event is reported in books of Sunnites in different forms and all of them indicate that the second caliph was not aware of God's command vis-à-vis a junub person. The Holy Quran, in two surahs,[^11] has dealt with such an impure person; however, the caliph had not ever seen these two verses!