Secondly...

Secondly, the amount meant to be paid to the Prophet’s relatives was stopped and diverted for purchase of arms, contrary to the Qur’anic injunctions. However, Umar increased the share of Aa’isha several fold, for which bounty she ever remained thankful to Umar. Islam had prescribed an astute life bereft of pomp and revelry. What the Prophet (S) taught was a simple way of life and a simple belief in an Unseen, Omnipotent God. It prohibited wine and a pompous way of life.

The Umayyads, who by nature were boisterous revelers, could not suffer the prohibitions, as much as they could not comprehend an Unseen God.

Nicholson wrote that the Umayyads who had come to power as ‘kings by right, Caliphs by courtesy’, adds, “ As descendants and representatives of pagan aristocracy, which strove with all its might to defeat Muhammad, they were usurpers in the eyes of the Moslem community which they claimed to lead as his successors.” [^10] In the pre-Islamic times, the Arabs never believed in a life after death, nor did they believe in resurrection, the Day of Judgement, or the Final Reckoning.

They had no concept of accountability, reward, or punishment for their deeds. They lived their life to enjoy it uninhibited to the full, for the moment. They suddenly realized that Islam sought to put strange shackles, which they were only too eager to remove and abandon on the slightest pretext. The death of the Prophet (S) provided the opportunity.

In a show of asserting their independence they theorized that no Divine sanction is necessary in the matter of the Prophet’s successor to govern the temporal affairs of the Islamic State. Thus assuming power, the Caliph demanded that Zakat and Khums should be directly paid to the agents of the Caliph instead of paying it to the deserving, as the Qur’an directed*.* Dispute about the Caliph’s Authority to Collect Zakat At the days of the Prophet (S), Zakat was never collected by any authority.

Payment of Zakat was an individual’s responsibility under Qur’anic injunctions. For the first time, Abu Bakr ordered that Zakat to be paid to tax collectors appointed by the government.

This innovation was strongly resented by several Muslims, who rightly believed that Zakat was not a part of the state fund or treasury.[^11] It, therefore, became necessary for the first two Caliphs to change the very meaning and interpretation of the word ‘ Zakat ’ treating it not as an individual’s obligation but as the right of the state.