Refusing to pay Zakat
All around Arabia, except for Medina, Makkah, and Ta’if,
Shaytan was trying to weaken the new Muslims’ Iman or belief in many
different ways.
The 5 pillars of Islam are extremely important for all Muslims.
But, the evil made the new Muslims not want to pay their zakat.
This was very dangerous because if Muslims do not follow the pillars of Islam, that would
weaken our Iman.
And if Muslims have different definitions of Iman, that would break the unity of the
Muslim Ummah.
In that situation, some of the good Muslims were scared to do anything and thought it
wasn’t a big deal because they were still following the other pillars of Islam.
But Abu Bakr (r) was very strict about following Allah (SWT)’s law and order because he did
not want anyone to change the real Islam.
This made some of the new Muslim tribes really mad, so they decided they would attack Medina.
All of this was happening when the Muslim army was still in the Arab-Roman border, trying
to stop the big Roman army from destroying the Muslims.
Abu Bakr knew that there were only a few Muslims left to protect Medina, the center of Islam
at the time.
But in that difficult situation, Abu Bakr (r) had strong faith in Allah (SWT) and did
not give up.
To protect the city, the very smart Abu Bakr (r) told some of the people to guard the prophet’s
mosque.
He also gave Zubair, Talha, Abdullah bin Masud and Ali (r) the most important job.
To guard the city of Medina and to keep an eye on the enemies.
When the enemy was coming, right away Abu Bakr (r) himself left Medina with some Muslims
to stop them.
But the bad people used drums and other loud sounds that scared the Muslims’ camels.
Then the second time, with the help of Allah (SWT), the Muslims were able to stop the bad
people.
With Allah’s miracle, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) saved Medina, even though the Muslim army
wasn’t there.
Around the same time, the Muslims got another good news.
Usama (r)’s army returned from Syria after winning the battle that stopped the big Roman
army from attacking the main center of Islam.
Everyone was so surprised when they heard the news.
In that battle, they won a lot of valuable war items which made the Muslim army extremely
strong.
After this big success, the smaller tribes who were planning to attack Medina because
of the zakat situation got scared.
They realized that even if the prophet was no longer alive, the Muslims were still very
strong and powerful with Allah (SWT)’s blessing.
When the problem of Rome was solved, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) wanted to establish peace agreements
with their neighbors all around Arabia again.
At that time, peace agreements were very important to do business.
People would trade with many different tribes from north to south and east to west.
During those times, they used very specific paths, called trade routes.
If a tribe did not like another tribe, they could steal, and they would not be able to
do their business safely.
So, the peace agreements were a promise to help each other as friends and to protect
them from any trouble.
During the Prophet's lifetime, many tribes made peace agreements with the Muslims, but
after Prophet Muhammad (s)’s death, they thought all the peace agreements were over,
and in their minds, they did not have any peace agreement with the new caliph of Islam.
They also thought the Muslims were not powerful anymore to help their small tribes.
That’s why many tribes broke off their peace agreements after the prophet passed away.
To solve this situation, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) gathered strong Muslims from Mecca, Medina,
and Ta’if and made a total of eleven army groups.
He sent each of the different groups to different tribes all over Arabia to establish peace
agreements again and to stop the fake Muslims who were confusing and breaking the unity
of the Muslim ummah.
For this mission, Caliph Abu Bakr chose Khalid bin Walid as his commander in chief.
Some of the other top generals were Hudhaifah, Shurahbil, Arfajah, Tarqah, Amr bin Al-As,
Khalid bin Saeed and Ikrimah (r), who was the bad Abu Jahal’s son.
All of these Muslim generals left Medina and went to different directions to bring back
peace in Arabia.
It was around 3 months after Muhammad (s)’s death, in the month of Jumada Al- Thani of
the 11 Hijri.
Caliph Abu Bakr (r) sent the same message to all the tribes.
Each of the generals explained the Caliph’s message to the tribes; that the prophet Muhammad
(s) passed away because he was a human just like us, and he was the last prophet and messenger
of Allah (SWT).
He only came to this earth to show us the path of Allah (SWT).
He came to bring justice and peace to this world.
He came to give us the last Holy Book, the Quran, and show us how to follow Allah (SWT)'s
law and order.
And when his mission in this life was over, that is when he had to go away, but the Quran,
the laws of Islam, did not change, and it will forever stay the same.