Therefore al-Ṣiddīq stationed guards at every approach to Madinah, posting detachments of troops to keep watch through the night. Among the commanders of these sentries were ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd.
Arab delegations then began arriving in Madinah, agreeing to perform the prayer but refusing to pay zakat; some would not deliver it to al-Ṣiddīq at all. It is related that certain among them cited the Almighty’s words:
“Take alms from their wealth in order to purify and cleanse them, and pray for them; indeed, your prayer is a comfort for them.” (Qur’an 9:103)
They said, “We will hand over our zakat only to someone whose supplication brings us peace.” One of their poets recited:
We obeyed the Messenger of Allah while he was among us—
How strange, then, this dominion of Abū Bakr!
Some of the Companions spoke with al-Ṣiddīq, proposing that he leave the people for the time being in their refusal to pay zakat, win their hearts, and allow faith to take firmer root; afterwards, they would surely give it. Al-Ṣiddīq categorically rejected the idea.
All the major compilers except Ibn Mājah (1) relate—on the authority of Abū Hurayrah—that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said to Abū Bakr, “Why will you fight the people, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Once they declare it, they have safeguarded their blood and wealth from me—except for its rightful due.’”
Abū Bakr replied, “By Allah, if they withhold from me even a yearling goat—in another wording, a camel hobble—that they used to give to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I will fight them for withholding it. Zakat is the due right of wealth. By Allah, I will fight anyone who makes a distinction between prayer and zakat.” ʿUmar said, “It was only when I saw that Allah had opened Abū Bakr’s chest to battle that I knew it was the truth.”
I say: Allah the Exalted has said, “But if they repent, establish prayer, and pay zakat, then let them go their way.” (Qur’an 9:5)
It is also recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (2): “Islam is built upon five: bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; establishing prayer; paying zakat; pilgrimage to the House; and fasting in Ramadan.”
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir transmits through two chains from Shabābah ibn Suwwār: ʿĪsā ibn Yazīd al-Madīnī narrated to us, telling me that Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān said:
When the great apostasy occurred, Abū Bakr stood before the people, praised Allah, and extolled Him, then said:
“All praise belongs to Allah, Who has guided and sufficed, Who has bestowed and enriched. Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ at a time when knowledge was scattered and Islam a banished stranger—its cord frayed, its covenant worn, its adherents astray. Allah despised the People of the Book; He granted them no good in return for the good they claimed, nor repelled from them evil despite the evil they wrought. They had altered their scripture, inserting into it what did not belong. As for the Arabs—those who felt secure—they imagined …”
(The address continues.)