that are manifest and established by mass transmission must, by the consensus of the Muslims, be fought until religion belongs wholly to Allah. Thus did Abū Bakr al-Siddīq and the other Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) fight those who withheld zakat. Some Companions initially hesitated to fight them, but they later reached agreement. ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb asked Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them both), “How can you fight people when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘I have been commanded to fight people [أ/ق 52] until they testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Once they say this, their lives and wealth are protected from me, except where a rightful claim exists against them, and their reckoning is with Allah’?” Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) replied, “Zakat is one such rightful claim. By Allah, if they withheld from me even a young she-goat that they used to render to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I would fight them for withholding it.” ʿUmar (1) said, “As soon as I saw that Allah had opened Abū Bakr’s heart to fighting, I knew that it was the truth.” (2)
It is established through numerous chains of transmission from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he commanded the Khawārij to be fought. In the two Sahih collections (3), Alī ibn Abī Tālib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: ‘Toward the end of time, there will emerge a people young in age and foolish in thought. They will speak with the words of the best of creation, yet their faith will not pass beyond their throats. They will pass clean through the religion just as an arrow passes through its quarry. Wherever you encounter them, kill them, for whoever kills them will have a reward on the Day of Resurrection.’”
In another narration by Muslim (4), Alī (may Allah be pleased with him) said that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)