Jizyah

Jizyah or jizya (جزية) is the extra, lunar-yearly tax^[1] imposed on non-Muslims (Dhimmis) who live under Muslim rule according to the Qur'an and hadith (quotes can be found at Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Jizyah). It is the the linchpin of the system of religious apartheid and Islamic supremacism which is the dhimma. Its payment is both a payment for the cessation of the state of Jihad upon the dhimmi, as well as a sign of the humiliation and degradation of the dhimmi before the authority of Islamic religion. The jizya itself was only one of many special taxes paid by non-Muslims to their Muslim governments, but amongst them it is the only one which was specifically delineated in the Qur'an. Other taxes on non-Muslims such as the kharaaj were often equated with and sometimes used interchangeably with the word jizya in Arabic and other languages of Islamic empires. Unlike with the other taxes, various other traditions of humiliation and abuse accompanied the jizya; the dhimma was required to pay it عن يد "'an yadin" that is "by hand" and صاغرون "saaghiruun" that is "humiliated/lowered/in subjugation." As such the traditional mufassirun have decreed that while paying the tax the dhimmi must receive blows about the head and/or neck from the Muslim collecting it to symbolize his humiliated state, and Islamic fuqahaa' (legal scholars) throughout the ages have reiterated the legislation of this humiliating practice throughout the ages. Upon payment of the tax the dhimmi would receive a receipt of payment, either in the form of a piece of paper or parchment or as a seal humiliatingly placed upon their neck, and was thereafter compelled to carry this receipt wherever he went within the realms of Islam. Failure to produce an up-to-date jizya receipt on the request of a Muslim could result in death or forced conversion to Islam of the dhimmi in question ^[2].

Definition

The jizya's origin is found in the Qur'an:

The text is clear that the tax is a sign of their submission to the Muslims. Its role is thus not only fiduciary but also social; it is a sign of vilification and humiliation which the person of the book under Muslim rule (id est, the dhimmi) must suffer as the price for the right to live under Muslim rule. The Arabic text is specific that the dhimmi must pay the jizya عن يد "'an yadin" that is "by hand" and صاغرون "saaghiruun" that is humiliated and lowered.

The institution of the dhimma and its linchpin the jizya is in Islamic fiqh part and parcel to the larger theory of Jihad in Islamic Law. Paying the tax is one of the three choices that Muslims imams (leaders) are to offer infidels before declaring jihad upon them:

Once a land is conquered by Islamic armies the ruler must impose a taxation on those non-Muslims who will not convert to Islam.

Jizyah is paid as a sign of submission and humiliation and gives Dhimmis some legal protection in return. Under dhimmitude (the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims) Dhimmis usually are not allowed to carry arms to protect themselves, serve in the army or government, display symbols of their faith, build or repair places of worship etc. Further stipulations can include the requirement for dhimmis to dress differently, live in inferior houses, use inferior transport, and oblige themselves to the feeding and housing of Muslims as needed. If the conquered do not wish to pay or convert, their fate may very well be slavery (under which, rape is permitted) or (as evidenced in the quotes above) death.

The amount of the Jizyah tax was based on income ^[3] and the way it was collected varied from time to time and from place to place, but when imposed, the forced payment of Jizyah greatly stimulated the conversion of non-Muslims into Islam.^[4] In some cases the taxation of the non-Muslims was so profitable that some Islamic rulers discouraged their subjects from converting to Islam, lest they should lose their income.^[5]

Historical Precedents and Influences

Jizyah was not entirely an Islamic initiative or the innovation of its prophet Muhammad. A certain form of Jizyah had existed among the tribes of Northern Arabia in pre-Islamic times. This fact is attested by the famous historian Philip. K. Hitti in his History of Arabs. Ghazw (غزو) or raiding others for feeding mouths was an accepted norm among the Bedouin tribes of that time. As Hitti noted, "Ghazw was a manly occupation of Bedouins where fighting mood was a chronic mental condition". For people among the tribes, everything that belonged to the other tribes guaranteeing material gain made a legitimate target. The context made it necessary for a weaker tribe or a sedentary settlement on the borderland to buy protection from the stronger tribe by paying what it then called Khuwwah which later became Jizyah in Muhammad’s Islam. Along with the booty acquired through raids and wars, Jizyah turned out to be a good source of income for believers.

The Jizya Verse and Commentary

The jizya is meant both as a means of exploiting the dhimmi community, and as method of humiliating them, as ibn Kathir makes clear in his tafsir on the jizya verse from surat-at-Taubah:

The jizyah is a sign of how miserable the dhimmis are, and as such good Muslims should avoid contact with them. Its function is thus not only to fill the coffers of the Islamic state, but also to seperate the Muslims from the dhimmis by way of the humiliation and villification of the later. In order that the seperation be maintained, the system of the dhimma includes many discriminatory laws meant to visual mark the dhimmis as different from the Muslims. In addition, the dhimmi is required to keep the receipt of his payment of the jizya at all times and to provide it upon request to Muslim officials. Failure to produce the receipt of payment for the jizya could result in fines, imprisonment, or even death depending on the time period and place of the infraction.

Approval from Islamic Scholars

Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-'Arifi, Imam of the mosque of King Fahd Defense Academy, imagines the coming Muslim conquest of the Vatican:

Jizyah in History

Although many aspects of the dhimma were not enforced in many places and times throughout Islamic history, the jizyah and associated taxes such as the kharaj were not one of these aspects. Consistently throughout Islamic history, in accordance with the Islamic doctrine that the dhimmis and all of their economic output constitute the fay of the Islamic state and ummah in perpetuity, the jizyah and related taxes were extracted from the dhimmi peoples with stark consistency. Unlike many other aspects of the dhimma which did fall out use in time (although many were brought back later), Islamic states also came up with new taxes on the dhimmis, such as the "blood tax" of the devshirme in the Ottoman Empire, whereby the first born sons of the rayah (dhimmis, literally flock of animals) would be collected, forcibly converted to Islam and pressed into the service of the Sultan's elite military corps, the janissaries.

Muslim empires from Spain to Bangladesh and everywhere in between implemented the jizyah. Although theoretically only applicable to Jews and Christians, a "sahih" hadith exists in which the Prophet commanded that Zoroastrians be subject to the jizyah. Although Islamic scholars initially laid down the death penalty, practical considerations forced the hanafi school of jurisprudence in India to countenance the collection of the dhimma from Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and other non-people of the book "mushrikuun" or "polytheists" in the Islamic empires of India, since killing or forcibly converting the hundreds of millions of polytheists in the subcontinent was impractical for pre-modern pre-industrial age states. As the hanafi school was the main school followed by Indian Muslims, this ruling is peculiar to them; the other 3 mainstream schools of Sunni fiqh and the salafis maintain that the polytheists should only be offered the choice of the sword or conversion to Islam by the imam of the Islamic state.

The Ottoman empire imposed jizya on its Jewish and Christian subjects. Jizya collected from these communities was one of the main sources of income of the Ottoman treasury.^[7] The empire abolished it in 1856, but this action was dubbed as "cosmetic" because they replaced it with bedel-i askeri, a tax on non-Muslims in return for their exemption from military services.^[8][9]

Jizyah in the Modern World

Other Islamic Taxes

Zakat

Muslims also had to pay a tax called Zakat. However, this zakat is a 2.5% tax, while the jizyah (which can vary) is about a 10% income tax (although it has been known to be as high as 50%). Muslims are obligated to pay this so-called "charity tax" even today, as its one of the five pillars of Islam. But, instead of paying it to the state, they now pay zakat to charities of their choice. It must however be noted that the majority of Islamic scholars are of the view that non-Muslims should not benefit from this alms giving,^[10] which is why mainstream Islamic charities, like Islamic Relief, almost exclusively^[11] focusing their humanitarian work in Muslim majority nations or areas in non-Muslim countries which are heavily populated by Muslim minorities. In the aftermath of the 2010 Pakistan floods, many Christian survivors were denied aid supplied by Muslim charities as a result.^[12]

Devshirme

Kharaj

The Umayyad caliph Umar II made non-Arab converts to Islam pay kharaj as a compensation for the diminished jizya tax base.^[13]

Some have said that jizya and kharaj were not significantly higher than the taxes collected in the pre-Islamic Byzantine and Sassanid empires. However:

Kharaj was also imposed on Hindu peasants of India during the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals. Its value varied from 20 percent to 50 percent of the produce.^[14]

Miscellaneous

• The Hedaya, a 12th-century legal manual considered one of the most influential books of Hanafi Islamic law, states that a tithe on wine and pork should be collected from dhimmis and polytheists whenever they pass by any collector's office in an Islamic state.^[15]

• Rav akçesi, also called "rabbi tax," was imposed on Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire.^[16][17]

• Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707), known for persecuting non-Muslims under his rule, used to collect a customs duty called sair-jihat. It was applicable on the sale of sundry objects, including cloth, oil, grains, food, horses, camels, and animal skins.^[18] The rate was fixed according to the religion of the payer. Hindu merchants paid 5 per cent, Christians 4 per cent and Muslims 2.5 per cent. Later, he exempted Muslims completely from this tax.^[19]

See Also

Translations

• A version of this page is also available in the following languages: Bulgarian. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.

External Links

• The Jizyah Tax: Equality And Dignity Under Islamic Law?
• Jizyah and the Zimmî
• Dhimmitude Past and Present: An Invented or Real History?, by Bat Ye'or
• Payments to Hamas as Jizyah (Archived)
• Jizyah - Wikipedia (Additional information and contains some more Hadith references)
• Islam: Requiring Other Faiths to Pay Up - TheReligionofPeace.com

Muslim websites

• Regarding Jizyah on non-Muslim Citizens - Understanding-Islam.com (Archived)
• Jizyah and non-Muslim Minorities - Fatwa Bank at IslamOnline.net

References