Punishment of Apostacy in Islam — Page 68
68 who would not leave the Muslims at peace. They persecuted them and sought to wipe out Islam with the sword. He stood up against them and having established peace and security in the land, laid the foundations of an Islamic state and put the Islamic law in force. Among other laws he imposed the zakat on those upon whom it had been made obligatory and arranged for its recovery. During his time, no section of the Muslims refused to pay the zakat. He was, therefore, under no necessity to fight anyone on that score. This necessity arose in the case of Hazrat Abu Bakr who was refused the dues that the Holy Prophet had imposed, the recovery of which he arranged for and out of the proceeds of which he fulfilled the requirements of the state. Therefore, it became the duty of Hazrat Abu Bakr to recover those dues by force from the subjects of the Islamic state who refused to render them voluntarily. History does not mention any case of a people whose default in the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr was confined merely to the non- payment of zakat and whom he fought. So far as we have been able to discover, those whom he fought had rebelled openly against the Islamic state. They had expelled from the territories under their control the functionaries who had been appointed by the Holy Prophet, peace be on him; those among them who adhered to Islam were massacred and they had raised forces for the purpose of fighting the Islamic state. Some of them advanced against Medina. Hazrat Abu Bakr had been left no choice but to fight them. Even if there had been any tribes whose default was limited to refusal to pay the zakat, and who called themselves Muslims, it had become necessary to fight them also as they withheld