CHAPTER XIX
The Apostasy of the Arabs in the Caliphate of
abu-Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddîḳ
Abu-Bakr threatens those who withhold ṣadaḳah. When abu-Bakr was proclaimed caliph, certain Arab tribes apostatized from Islâm and withheld the ṣadaḳah. Some of them, however, said, "We shall observe prayer but not pay zakât." In reference to that abu-Bakr said, "If they refuse me a one-year ṣadaḳah,[1] I shall surely fight against them." According to other reports he said, "If they refuse me a two-year ṣadaḳah."
ʿAbdallâh ibn-Ṣâliḥ al-ʿIjli from ash-Shaʿbi:—ʿAbdallâh ibn-Masʿûd said, "After the death of the Prophet we found ourselves in a state in which we would have perished had not Allah favored us with abu-Bakr. By the consensus of opinion, we agreed not to fight on a female camel that had entered on its second year or a male camel that had entered on its third year, but appropriate for ourselves the income of Ḳura ʿArabîyah[2] and worship Allah until the right course is revealed unto us." Allah gave orders to abu-Bakr to fight them. Then, by Allah, abu-Bakr was not satisfied by anything but one of two:—a humiliating plan or an evacuating war. As for the humiliating plan, it was that they acknowledge that those of their number who were killed went to hell, and that our property that fell into their hands should be returned to us; and the evacuating war was that they leave their homes.
