Therefore...

Therefore, Abū-Bakr had said about the delegation of tulayhah ibn Khuwaylid: “Even if they refuse to give the rope that is used for tying the camels, I shall fight with them.”[1] This mischief had raised its head during the lifetime of the Prophet (a.s) and later on, some more tribes joined them. But saying that barring the Quraysh and Thaqif all other tribes were involved in apostasy was far from the truth.

How could it be possible that immediately after the Prophet (a.s) all the tribes became antagonistic to Islam? Did they embrace Islam out of fear of the growing power of the Muslims? When they knew that, the Prophet (a.s) was no more they recanted from Islam. This sort of thinking will strengthen the idea of some people that Islam did not spread with the missionary zeal of the Prophet (a.s) and that the main cause of the spread was the swords of the Arabs.

The truth is that to settle scores with some tribes, they were unreasonably blamed of apostasy and they were attacked with this excuse. Therefore, `Amr ibn Harith asked Sa`id ibn Zayd whether he was present at the time of the Prophet’s death? He replied in the affirmative. He asked on what day the bay`ah of Abū-Bakr took place? He replied that happened the same day as the Prophet’s demise. He was asked, did any one oppose the selection?

He replied: “None objected except those who were apostates or were about to become apostate.”[2] This reply proves the fact that those who opposed the candidature of Abū-Bakr were dubbed apostate, although their refusal to owe allegiance to Abū-Bakr was the only thing that prompted such an extreme reaction from his supporters. As far as withholding of payment of zakat is concerned, when those people had not accepted Abū-Bakr as the Caliph, they were naturally reluctant to pay the zakat .

They were just refusing to pay the zakat and were not against the institution of zakat . They were aware that the zakat Tax was mandatory in the Shari`ah. But since they did not approve of the new establishment, they were refusing to fulfill their obligation of paying the zakat . The evident proof that they were not apostates was that they regularly [1] Tārīkh al-Tabarī, Vol 2, Page 476 [2] Tārīkh al-Tabarī, Vol 2, Page 447 offered their mandatory prayers.

They had also not denied the rules and conditions for the zakat . They were only refusing to pay zakat to the rulers of the day and not denying it as an obligatory pillar of the Faith. They cannot therefore be termed apostates.