I perform the prescribed prayers, fast Ramadan, regard what is lawful as lawful and what is forbidden as forbidden, and do nothing beyond that, will I enter Paradise?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ The man said, ‘By Allah, I shall do nothing beyond that.’” Another version reads: “Al-Nuʿmān ibn Qawqal came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

This hadith of al-Nuʿmān dates from an early period, for al-Nuʿmān ibn Qawqal was killed before the conquest of Mecca by a member of Banū Saʿd ibn al-ʿĀs, as established in the Sahīh. These hadiths were thus given in answer to people’s questions, whereas the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar was an unsolicited statement.

The hadiths concerning calling people to Islam and fighting mention prayer and zakah, as in the report in the two Sahīh collections from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, who said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establish prayer, and pay zakah. If they do so, their lives and property are protected from me, except as required by Islam, and their reckoning rests with Allah.”

The two compilers also included it in their Sahīh collections on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, and Muslim narrated it from Jābir, with the wording:

“I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. If they say this, their lives and property are protected from me, except as required by that testimony.”

Abū Bakr said: “By Allah, I shall fight those who distinguish between prayer and zakah, for zakah is a right due on wealth.”

It was part of Abū Bakr’s understanding of the religion that he understood from this abridged hadith that fighting to enforce zakah was fighting to enforce a right due on wealth. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, clarified what he meant in the fuller wording narrated by Ibn ʿUmar.

The Quran explicitly accords with the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar, as Allah Most High says:

“But if they repent, establish prayer, and pay zakah, then let them go their way.”