Mahatma Gandhi was immensely impressed with Hazrat Umar who was a great companion of Prophet Muhammad and after Hazrat Abu Bakr he became the second Khalifa (Caliph) of Islam.
Mahatma Gandhi says about the justice and generosity of Caliph Umar1:
“As I pictured him (Umar) before my mental eye walking to Jerusalem upbraiding some of his followers for aping the pomp of their neighbours, refusing to pray in a Christian church lest succeeding generations might claim to convert it into a mosque, granting the most liberal terms to the conquered Christians,
and as I picture him declaring that the word of a follower of Islam, though pledged by one not authorized thereto, was as good as the written decree of the great Caliph himself, he (Caliph Umar) commands my humble respect. His was an iron will. He weighed out the same justice to his daughter that he would weigh to an utter stranger.”
1. Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol 25.