in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; yet it was done by his very command.

A case in point is Abū Bakr’s campaign against those who refused to pay the alms-due (zakāt). Although, in purely linguistic terms, one might call it an innovation—since the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, never fought anyone for the zakāt alone—Abū Bakr acted on the strength of the Prophet’s statement:

“I have been commanded to fight people until they bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. When they make that declaration, their lives and their wealth are safe from me—except for what is due—and their account is with Allah.”

It is well understood that zakāt is part of what is “due”; therefore, those who withhold it are not granted protection, as the other sound ḥadīth makes explicit:

“ … until they bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establish the prayer, and pay the zakāt.”

This is a wide-ranging subject.

The guiding rule here—Allah knows best—is that people introduce nothing new unless they consider it beneficial; were they to regard it as harmful, they would never adopt it, for nothing would impel them to do so.