Page 55 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

EARLY HISTORY OF ISLAM: A BRIEF LOOK 35

from you." And he said, "Go, for you are free."81 Thus was the clemency
he granted the Makkans, to those who had persisted in the torture of Muslims
for twenty years."
In ten years' time all of Arabia, from Oman to the Red Sea, and from
southern Syria to Yemen, had come under Muslim control. A mere decade
after his arrival in Madinah as an emigrant, Muhammad had become not
only a Prophet implementing the Divine Order of Islam, but alsothe supreme
and uncontested ruler of the entire Arabian Peninsula - uniting it for the
first time in history.

3. Death if the Prophet andAccession if Abu Bakr

i. Abu Bakr Handles Widespread Apostasies

Prophet Muhammad's death in 11 A.H. led to Abu Bakr's unanimous nom-
ination as his heir to the burgeoning Muslim state. During the Prophet's
twilight days some of the hypocrites, among them Musailama al-Kadhdhab
('Musailama the Liar'),83 had claimed prophethood for themselves. Now,
spurred by the Prophet's passing, wholesale apostasy" flared across most
of the region." Some of the tribal leaders who had lost their seats during
the Prophet's lifetime followed Musailama's example, giving rise to new
'prophets' such as Tulaiha bin Khuwailid and the prophetess Sajah bint
al-Harith bin Suwaid, a stalwart Christian."
The situation was so acute that even 'Umar suggested to Abu Bakr a
temporary compromise with those who refused to pay Zakat. He rebuked
any such idea, insisting, "By Allah, I will definitely fight anyone who severs
prayer from Zakat, for it is an obligation upon the rich. By Allah, if there
is even a single cord (used for hobbling the feet of camels) which they once
proffered to the Messenger of Allah as Zakat, but have now withheld it,

81 Ibn Hisham, Sira, voL 3-4, pp. 389-412.
82 Bosworth Smith says, "If he had worn a mask at all, he would now at all events
had thrown it off; ... now would have been the moment to gratify his ambition, to
satiate his lust, to glut his revenge. Is there anything of the kind? Read the account of
the entry of Mohammed into Mecca side by side with that of Marius of Sulla into
Rome.... We shall then be in a position better to appreciate the magnanimity and
moderation of the Prophet of Arabia." [In Mohammed andMohammedanism, London,
1876, p. 142, quoted by AH. Siddiqui, TheLifecfMohammad, Islamic Research Academy,
Karachi, 1969, p. 313.]
83 In the Yamama region, a plateau in the central north-east region of the Arabian
peninsula.
84 Generally, apostasy is the desertion of one's religious faith.
85 Some refused to pay the Zakat (mandatory alms) to the central government.
86 At-Tabari, TaTikh, iii:272.