to Yemen, we have already discussed it as well, so there is no need to repeat it here. What concerns us is the Prophet’s ﷺ instruction therein: “Teach them that Allah has made obligatory upon them a charity to be taken from their wealthy and returned to their poor.” This is the point of proof in this chapter, and Allah is the One who grants success.

1209 – Ibn ʿUmar – may Allah be pleased with them both – reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “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, establish the prayer, and pay the zakah. When they do so, they have protected their lives and their property from me, except for the right of Islam, and their reckoning rests with Allah.” Agreed upon.

1210 – Abu Hurayrah – may Allah be pleased with him – reported: After the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died and Abu Bakr – may Allah be pleased with him – became caliph, some of the Arabs apostatised. ʿUmar – may Allah be pleased with him – said, “How will you fight the people when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘I have been commanded to fight people until they say: There is no god but Allah. Whoever says it has safeguarded from me his wealth and his life, except with due right, and his account is with Allah’?”

Abu Bakr replied, “By Allah, I will fight anyone who separates prayer from zakah, for zakah is the due of wealth. By Allah, if they were to withhold from me even a camel-hobble they used to give to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I would fight them for withholding it.”

ʿUmar said, “By Allah, once I saw that Allah had opened Abu Bakr’s heart to the decision to fight, I realised that it was the truth.” Agreed upon.