Hundred Great Muslims

14 Hundred Great Muslims
Muslims at the hands of the Romans. There was a great turmoil in Arabia after
the death of the Prophet, and his close associates counselled the new Caliph
not to despatch forces outside Medina at such a critical juncture. Hazrat Abu
Bakr was adamant on the point and replied that he would be the last person in
the world to revise the orders of the Prophet. The charger of the commander
Usama appointed by the Prophet was led by the Caliph himself. The army
accomplished its object within forty days. The expedition had a salutary effect
on the recalcitrant tribesmen who had begun to be sceptical about the inherent
potentialities of Islam. The imaginative, timely and dynamic action taken by
Abu Bakr, tended to establish Muslim power.
Very soon another crisis confronted Abu Bakr. On the death of the
Prophet of Islam, a number of pseudo prophets i.e., imposters raised their
heads in various parts of Arabia, outstanding being AswadAsni, Talha of Bani
Asad, Musailma, the liar and Sajah, a woman of Yemen. The Caliph gave at
Zuhl Qassa eleven banners to equal number of commanders and assigned them
various sectors. The expedition against Musailma, the liar, was the toughest
and Hazrat Khalid bin Walid, after a bloody battle, routed the enemy. Musailma
was killed. According to historian Tabari, "Never dfd the Muslims fight a more
stiff battle."
Shortly after the election of the new Caliph, a large number of tribesmen
pleaded with the notables of Islam in Medina to be exempted from the payment
of Zakat. The situation looked so gloomy that even a person of the calibre of
Hazrat Umar yielded on the point and counselled Hazrat Abu Bakr, "0 Caliph
of the Prophet, be friendly to these people and treat them gently." The Caliph
was immensely annoyed at this unexpected exhibition of weakness, and replied
indignantly, "You were so harsh during the days of ignorance, but now you
have become so weak. The Divine revelations have been completed and our faith
has attained perfection. Now, you want it to be mutilated during my lifetime. I
swear by Allah that even if a string is withheld from Zakat, I will fight for it
with all the resources at my command."
The Caliph lived up to his convictions and his integrity and strength of
character, preserved the basic precepts of Islam at a very critical juncture of
her history.
All the punitive expeditions directed against the apostates and rebellious
tribesmen successfully terminated by the end of 11 A.H., and the spirit of revolt
and dissensions which gripped Arabia was curbed for ever.
Free from the internal upheavals, the Caliph attended to the external
dangers which imperilled the very existence of Islam. Kaiser and Kisra, the two
most powerful emperors of the world, were lurking for an opportunity to strike
at the very root of the new faith. The Persians, who for centuries ruled over
Arabia as overlords, could never tolerate that the militant Arabs should unite
and form themselves into a formidable force. Hurmuz, the tyrant governed