Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Socio-Religious Reforms
Soon after his accession to power, Umar II made a firm resolve to rejuvenate Muslims society. Many things such as pictures, plays and music were disapproved, women were forbidden to mourn the dead bareheaded. Drinking was prohibited and its import and trade were condemned. The common bathing under Persian denounced and stopped. Above all, the custom of abusing Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph in the Khutbas, was done away with. The Imams of the mosques and others concerned were instructed that the following verse of the Holy Quran should instead be incorporated in the formal sermon of Friday:
God commands justice, the doing
Of good, and liberality to kith
And kin, and He forbids
All shameful deeds, and injustice
And rebellion: He instructs you,
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That you may receive admonition.5
In his marvelous plan of Islamic revival, Umar II adopted the following methods:
1. He directed all his energies to rebuilding the true Islamic ideology and religion. He strove to cut at the very root of corrupt thought and prohibited any discussion of points which led to futile controversies. In actual life, he would ask the community to adhere to Muhkamat (the precise fundamentals) and recommended that there should be no arguing on Mutashabihat (the allegorical verses of the Quran).
2. The caliph understood very well that without the promotion of education, no plan of reconstruction and reform could bear fruit or materialise. Accordingly, he issued the following instructions to the concerned
That the text of the Quran and the content of the Holy Prophet’s sayings be recited and read out and then explained in wellorganized and-disciplined groups and gatherings; that the Ulama begin educating the people in mosques; that persons dedicating themselves to education and instruction should be given salaries amounting to a hundred dinars; and, that the students and the seekers after the knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah be granted stipends.
Caliph Umar II provided for the training of the teachers and scholars. Occasionally, he appointed men of his own choice to conduct study of the religious sciences. He deputed famous instructors in various subjects for the trainees and appointed Asim bin Ammar Qatadah to narrate the life of the companions at the great mosque of Damascus. In order to improve the methodology of education, the experts were sometimes asked to also have recourse to the Greek works.
3. Umar bin Adbul Aziz sincerely believed that the company of the pious, the noble and the most civilized, was a sure key to the self-improvement of a man and the enhancement of his knowledge. He encouraged pious and scholarly meetings, and exchanges and maintained contacts himself with some of the great savants to seek their counsel. Umar abandoned the Umayyad tradition of patronising eulogists and poets, who
’ AI-Quran, XVI,. 90.

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received big rewards for their compositions in which they gave exaggerated accounts of the deeds and virtues of the rulers. He gave up some of his pre-accession companions just as he had given up his delicacies and tastes. Instead of flatterers, he was now surrounded by pious men of the stature of Reja bin Haywah, Riyah bin Ubaidah and Maimum bin Mahran.
4. Umar II realized that all his efforts towards reform and
resurgence would be useless if he himself lacked piety and Islamic attitude in regard to things and matters. He thought that the pious who were powerless could not achieve much. But if the ruler was pious and charactered, society as a whole could improve its conduct and its wrongs would be righted. He believe’d that a Caliphate founded on piety must be maintained at all costs and if it was devoid of that fundamental quality or characteristic, it must be immediately saved from becoming defunct or useless. Umar II, not an Expansionist
”Umar’s heart,” says Syed Ameer Ali, ”was set not on the enlargement but on the consolidation of the vast empire that had been committed to his care. The army of Maslamah, encamped under the walls of Constantinople, was recalled: all frontier expeditions were stopped; the people were encouraged in the pursuits of industry, and provincial governors were required to give a strict account of their stewardship.” Extra troops were bjrought back. No military advance was allowed if the army was poorly equipped. The chances of war were minimized to the extent of inviting the enemy to accept Islam. Detailed instructions were given to the army commanders as regards the treatment of their own troops and the time when the enemy should not be struck or assaulted.
Although Umar II stood for the promotion of the arts of peace, he was very strict in regard to the maintenance of the supremacy of Islam in southwest Europe and making the life of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim community happy and prosperous. During these days, however, penetration was made into southern France. He appointed a new viceroy, al-Samh bin Malik, in place of al-Hurr, whose policy had led to difficulties. Al-Samh proved a great administrator. He ”was charged with the duty of re-establishing order in the finances, and thoroughly re-organizing the government.” Umar ordered him to take a census of the diverse nationalities and creeds
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then inhabiting Spain. ”At the same time a central survey was made
of the entire Peninsula the cities, mountains, rivers, and seas’
the character of the soil, the nature of its products, the resources of the land were minutely and carefully described in the records. A great congregational mosque was built at Saragossa, and numerous bridges were constructed or repaired.”
As for the general condition of law and order, it was satisfactory, except of course, for some instances of the insurgence of a governor or a faction. Sometimes the personality of the caliph was instrumental in postponing the hostilities as in the case of the Kharijites who did not object to his rule but condemned his predecessors and the heir-apparent, Yazid bin Abdul Malik. Again, local troubles broke out because sometimes a governor did not treat converts and non-Muslims generously or justly. The caliph removed the discrepancies under which the new Muslims of Khurasan had been suffering since the tyrannical rule of Hajjaj bin Yusuf. The avaricious Walis, like Yazid bin Muhallab, were recalled and even imprisoned. Caliph Umar ”restored to the Christians and the Jews the Churches and Synagogues to which they were entitled under the ancient capitulations, and which had been wrongfully taken away from them.”