“I have been commanded to fight the people until they say La ilaha illallah, and if they say it then their blood and wealth are safe from me, except in cases dictated by sharee'ah, and their reckoning is with Allah.” When some people apostatized, ʼUmar said to Abu Bakr: Will you fight them when you heard the Messenger of Allah is say such and such? Abu Bakr said: By Allah, I will not separate prayer and zakah, and I shall certainly fight anyone who separates them. So we fought them alongside him and we realised that that was the right thing to do.
Exposition of the Hadith from Musnad Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (ra)
This narration from Musnad Ahmad 67 contains profound legal and theological implications regarding the obligation of fighting those who abandon Islam and refuse to fulfill its fundamental pillars.
The Prophetic Command to Fight
The statement "I have been commanded to fight the people until they say La ilaha illallah" establishes that the initial cause for fighting non-Muslims is their refusal to accept Islamic monotheism. The testimony of faith serves as the fundamental distinction between belief and disbelief.
The phrase "except in cases dictated by sharee'ah" indicates that even after accepting Islam, certain Islamic legal provisions may still apply to one's life and property, such as prescribed punishments (hudud) or legal obligations.
Abu Bakr's Legal Reasoning
When some tribes attempted to separate prayer from zakah after the Prophet's death, considering zakah as a political tax rather than religious obligation, Abu Bakr recognized this as complete apostasy. His statement "I will not separate prayer and zakah" demonstrates that rejecting any fundamental pillar of Islam constitutes abandonment of the religion.
The companions' initial hesitation and subsequent realization that Abu Bakr's position was correct shows the importance of scholarly ijtihad in applying general principles to specific circumstances.
Legal Implications
This hadith establishes that those who apostatize from Islam and refuse to return to it must be fought. The connection between prayer and zakah shows that Islam is a comprehensive system whose pillars cannot be selectively accepted or rejected.
Abu Bakr's stance became the established position of the Muslim community, demonstrating that collective obligations (fard kifayah) like fighting apostates must be fulfilled by the Muslim leadership when the situation demands.