The Path of the Prophet

THE PATH OF THE PROPHET appointed as the first Caliph, and he finally gave the order to march on Syria. After the death of the Prophet, news started pouring into Madinah of mass apostasy among Arab tribes. Most Arab tribes that embraced Islam after the conquest of Makkah in A.H. 8 had converted impressed by the political dominance of Islam rather than from having undergone any profound intellectual transformation or from having attained any such conviction as had the earlier followers of the Prophet. They had been accustomed to a free and easy life, and some of the Islamic injunctions—especially zakat43 were more than they could tolerate. Some months before the death of the Prophet, demagogues had arisen in Yemen and Najd that exploited this situation putting forward a new brand of Islam, according to which there was no need to pay zakat. To give their words more weight, these demagogues—notably Aswad and Musaylamah—laid claim to prophethood, for only then could they challenge the zakat system. Zakat was part of the religion revealed to the Prophet Muhammad; they would have to pretend to prophethood to speak with the same authority. Their “prophethood” became very popular among the tribes who regarded zakat as a burden and flocked to these false prophets’ support. Their morale was boosted with the death of the Prophet in A.H. 10, and apostasy started spreading like wildfire, the only places remaining immune being Makkah, Madinah and Ta’if. There were reports, too, that these rebels were preparing to attack Madinah.