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HISTORY
‘Umar (radiyallāhu ‘anh) said, “By He in whose
hand is my soul, if Abū Bakr had obeyed us, we
would have committed kufr in a single morning,
and that was when they asked him to go easy
concerning zakāh [by not waging war against
the apostates over it], but he refused. He said,
‘If they were to withhold from me a short
rope, I would wage jihād against them over it’”
[Musannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah].
He (radiyallāhu ‘anh) also said, “We almost
committed kufr in a single morning if not that
Allah saved us through Abū Bakr as-Siddīq
(radiyallāhu ‘anh)” [Al-Ibānah al-Kubrā].
Abū Rajā’ al-‘Utāridī said, “I entered al-Madīnah
and saw the people gathered around a man
kissing the head of another while the kisser
was saying, ‘May I be killed in your defense!
If not for you, we would have been ruined.’
So I asked, ‘Who is the kisser and who is the
one being kissed?’ They said, ‘That is ‘Umar
kissing Abū Bakr’s head for his war against the
people of apostasy who resisted zakāh” [Tārīkh
Dimashq].
Abū Hurayrah (radiyallāhu ‘anh) said, “By He
other than whom there is no god, if Abū Bakr
had not been appointed khalīfah, Allah would
not be worshipped on the Earth!” He repeated
this three times [Al-I’tiqād – al-Bayhaqī].
Wakī’ Ibn al-Jarrāh (rahimahullāh) said, “If not
for Abū Bakr, Islam would have perished” [Al-
Ibānah al-Kubrā].
Al-Hasan al-Basrī (rahimahullāh) said, “The
Arabs apostatized, so Abū Bakr consulted the