Today’s episode, God willing, we will discuss Umar Ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, what was the economic situation during his caliphate? How was the revenue of the Islamic state collected, etc. We will try to discuss the writings of Umar Ibn al-Khattab and the economic structure of the Islamic government during his time, the caliphate government. We will try to discuss the income and expenditure of the Islamic government system, etc. in today’s episode, and at the end of this episode, we will try to write through a comparative discussion that what are the main differences between Islam and the human-made economic structures outside Islam, such as conflict or socialism. Communism and especially the interest-based unjust economic structures of the current world? Where are the main differences between the economic system of Islam? We will try to mention these issues at the end. Since the discussion is a bit long, we would like to mention the discussion first so that it is easier for us to remember how we are moving forward. First, we will mention the sources of income from which the revenue of the Islamic government came. We can divide these sources of income of the Islamic government into 2 parts. The first part is Zakat and the second part is Zakat. Other major sources of revenue besides Zakat are as follows: at the beginning, one-fifth of the spoils or 20% goes to the government. After this, there is Kharaj/Ushar and which one is which? Apart from these two sources, there are many other relatively small sources. However, we will not go into detail about them. Interested people can look into the book of fiqh. We will discuss Zakat in time. Allah says in the Quran: There are some people, some people, if We give them power and authority in this world, We give them a place in the world, they will establish prayer and give Zakat. And they enjoin good and forbid evil. Allah Almighty says: The outcome of every action is with Allah. Elsewhere, He also says, Take Zakat from their wealth. So that you may purify it and bless it. At the beginning of Zakat, we need to understand that Zakat is not a tax. Rather, it is a worship. One of the main acts of worship of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is to worship Allah through Zakat. Collecting Zakat from the wealthy and giving it to the poor and needy. Basically, it is the responsibility of the Islamic government. This is a state function that the state will collect, that is, wealth will be taken from the rich and distributed among the poor. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said that this, that is, Zakat will be taken from the rich and distributed among the poor. So the issue of Zakat is part of its social security. There is an economic aspect, it benefits the poor. There are these aspects, but we must always remember that this is an act of worship. It is not like any ordinary tax. How can any other tax be spent on government work? They can be spent. But there is no permission to spend this Zakat money on any government work as desired. The eight sectors mentioned in the Quran. There is no government right outside of that. But since the state is not being run by Islamic laws among us at present. Therefore, this issue of Zakat has been neglected. If the Islamic state system had been established, then it would have been ensured that Zakat would be collected from the rich in accordance with the rules. And it would have been delivered to the poor in a respectful manner as their right. But today, due to the absence of Islam as a state, the provision of Zakat has remained in such a neglected state that it often seems that Zakat is a kind of mercy or begging of the rich towards the poor. In a very humiliating way, things are being delivered to the poor or sometimes it is not being collected at all and there is no authority to ensure these things. Allah Almighty says in the Quran: The right of the seekers and the hoarders in wealth is the right. The literal meaning of Zakat has many meanings. One of them is to purify. Allah Almighty says, Take Zakat from their wealth so that you may purify it. There is a matter of purification through Zakat. What is being sanctified here? On the one hand, who is being sanctified by granting the rights of the poor And at the same time, the heart of the person who is giving Zakat is being purified. A person’s soul is purified from all these mental obstacles such as attachment to wealth, stinginess, selfishness, greed or consumerism. When he gives Zakat, this is the spiritual benefit of Zakat. By giving, this teaching of Islam is established in the heart of the person that the main owner of wealth is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. The owner of sustenance is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. He tests someone with wealth and tests someone by depriving them of it. Therefore, any wealthy person should never think that the wealth is mine. I have acquired it because of knowledge and intelligence. It is all my achievement. Rather, one should remember that the owner of the wealth is Allah. Allah gave it to me to test. We should not forget that the poor and helpless person definitely has a right to this property of mine. There is a right. By paying Zakat, the socio-economic condition improves. On the other hand, there are all the beliefs and thoughts that are outside the Islamic ideals and for example, we can say that capitalism is one of the human-made kufr economic systems. The belief behind this economy is consumerism or the free freedom of luxury. All those people consider property as their own. They consider it their own achievement, their own earnings. So when they are encouraged to donate. They do not find any meaning in it to the poor, the helpless. They have to give money to those helpless people, this is a big penalty. The hearts of all these people are filled with greed and stinginess. Regarding zakat, we see that its main responsibility is to collect and distribute it. It has to be collected by the state and it has to be paid by the state. During the time of Islam, we saw that an administrative structure was set up. They appointed various people and employees. Who would collect zakat and give it to the designated people. In the designated sectors of the area. So, it is not a matter of anyone giving Zakat here and there, but rather through the state administrative structure of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) continued this tradition. And not only that, we see that Abu Bakr Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) directly declared war on those who were slow to pay Zakat, refused to pay it, or made various excuses. So this is a very important matter and by taking it as an example, we see that collecting Zakat, paying Zakat, and ensuring that things are done are directly related to state affairs. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) adopted a special policy in paying Zakat. That is, he used to give Zakat in sufficient quantities to the poor. That is, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab said, when you give in sufficient quantities, give to a poor person. So that he is not dependent, that is, if I give Zakat to a person this year, then by giving Zakat in this way, that person becomes self-reliant through the money of that Zakat and next year he does not have to lay hands on anyone else. Poverty can be alleviated through fair management and fair distribution through Zakat. This is possible and Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) adopted this kind of policy. All the non-Muslims here were helpless and Jizya was waived on them. All the people of the Book used to pay money from the Zakat fund. So once again we would like to remind you that collecting Zakat and distributing Zakat is a direct state function of the Islamic state. Due to the lack of an Islamic government system, we are being deprived of economic benefits. Zakat is one of the biggest sources of revenue of the Islamic state. Another similar Usr. The word Usr means one tenth or one tenth. The Zakat that is collected on the land is included in this city. I will mention it in detail later. However, in short, at the beginning, we would like to inform you that there are two terminology words in Islamic Sharia and one thing is similar between these two. That similarity is that in both cases, a tax is imposed on land. There is a difference. The difference is that Ushr is not just a tax but here worship is done by paying money. That aspect, that is, the aspect of worship, is the most important part of Zakat. The Zakat that is collected on land is Ushr. That is why it is called Zakat of land. Kharaj is not just a matter of worship there. Non-Muslims do not worship Allah. The tax that is imposed and collected on land from them is called Kharaj. There is no part of worship involved there. There are several other differences between Zakat and Ushr. I can mention the complete details of our discussion so much, that if there is an excess of gold, silver or other goods for a year, then it becomes obligatory to collect it.
But when the land is spent, it is when the crop is produced. In that case, it becomes obligatory. If the land does not produce any crop, then no ausr is to be paid on it. The Quran does not directly use the word ushr. However, there are various verses in this regard. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala has mentioned in the night, saying, O you who believe, O you who believe, spend from the good things that you earn and from what We have produced for you and what We have produced for you from the earth. Spend from what We have produced for you from the earth and do not wish to spend from it the good things. You yourselves do not want to accept it. You accept it with your eyes closed. The wise, the free from need and the praised, are the ones who pay this zakat on the land, paying ushr. In that regard, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala also says: Now the harvest is cut, when the harvest is harvested, give its right.
We can say that in the agricultural land where the crop is produced, 10% or one tenth of one tenth of the crop is deposited in the fund of the Islamic government, according to the rules of Islam. That is what is and it is obligatory to pay it. Another type of Islamic government under the title of the word is that if non-Muslims come to do business in Muslim lands, they have to pay a kind of tax. That is ushr. There is an incident in this regard and there was a governor of Iraq. He wrote a letter to the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (RA) and informed him about this. He wrote that non-Muslims impose taxes on us. When we enter non-Muslim lands to do business. So if they come to do business in our lands, shouldn’t we impose the same kind of tax or tax on them? Amr, he asked how much tax is imposed on us? Musa said 10 percent, 10%. Umar bin Khattab said, okay, then that will be the case, we will impose 10% tax on them. So this is the first incident. During the Caliphate, when non-Muslims entered Muslim lands for business, they had to deposit 10 percent in the Islamic government fund. They had to pay tax. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not practice this at the time. He started it according to the needs of the time. Ushr is not on any land or crops. Rather, if non-Muslims come to Muslim lands to do business, it is imposed at the rate of 10 percent. Now we are going to the revenue sources that the Islamic state has. And here we have to remember that Zakat is certainly one of the main sources. But it is not the first source of revenue for the Islamic state. The largest source of state power in Islam during the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs was the Gonimah. We are going to this topic. First, we are going to discuss Jizya. Jizya is a kind of tax imposed on non-Muslim citizens living in an Islamic state. Non-Muslims will receive civil rights and privileges as citizens of an Islamic state, they will receive security. They will receive the right to live in life and property, and in return for this, they will pay the tax to the Islamic state. That is Jizya. This tax. It is not as a confession of their disbelief or false religion, but they are paying it to the Islamic state in exchange for security. There is another purpose. Allah Almighty says, until they do not do this with all the people who do not believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment, and Allah and His Messenger have forbidden what they have forbidden. They do not make them forbidden and do not accept the true religion, they pay Jizya in addition to taxes. That is, if they accept the Muslim world and accept the loyalty of Muslims and humble themselves, become small, and start paying jizya, then there is no more war with them. Because by paying taxes, they are accepting the loyalty of the Islamic state, the rules and regulations of the Islamic state and these things that are under its control. One thing to note here is that this discussion has been understood until they become small and pay jizya. So, by paying this economic tax here, someone might say that they feel a little degraded. Muslims have no reason to feel any hesitation or solidarity about this issue. If paying jizya is a financial or symbol of their smallness for non-Muslim citizens, then they should remember that this is what is destined for them. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala’s provision. Nowadays, people are very liberal about religion. But when Muslims want to practice Islam, the provisions of Islam come to the fore, then they become extremists and strict about Muslims and do not want to give them any religious rights. Yet they say in their mouths that everyone has their own religion, you practice your own religion within yourself, religion in your mind, etc., etc.
After discussing with the Companions, it was decided that this war-won land would not be distributed among the warriors. By having non-Muslims supervise and cultivate the land, the money from that land and from that state fund, the soldiers’ salaries and allowances would be paid to the Mujahideen later. And beyond that, the widows who would remain, the families of the Mujahideen, the next Muslims who would come, the expenses of the war would all be paid from that money. From this incident, we can see that it was mainly through this that the Muslim soldiers were being paid and given allowances. Thus, the professional Muslim army emerged in the Islamic state in the Caliphate. He institutionalized this matter in my book. In the beginning, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr Siddiq, there was still no professional paid Muslim army. They were citizens of the Islamic state. They were the warriors. A civilian army. The Companions were ordinary people. They fought for the security of the Muslims, for the security of the Islamic state. When the Imam or leader, the Caliph, gave orders. During the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, when the Islamic state developed, new cities, new large towns, came under the control of the Muslims, he started to modernize the army and pay them salaries to keep the conquered territories under the control of the Muslims. A large part of their budget was spent on their defense. Behind their war forces or armies. Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was thinking about where this money would come from and this idea originated from that thought. Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was the first to introduce the law of Kharaj. Now, let me talk about the introduction of Kharaj, is it a new invention? Something that started during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) or for which he had laid the foundation. And it was on the basis of his ideology that Umar ibn al-Khattab started this matter. He mentioned it with a verse from the Quran. In verse 10 of Surah Al-Hashr it is said: Those who come after them will also have a share. Khattab used this verse as evidence in his favor. We see that during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he distributed all the booty, i.e. gold, dirhams, etc. among the Mujahideen according to their own will. Similarly, he distributed the conquered lands according to the warriors. But Umar ibn al-Khattab only distributed gold and silver. But he did not give the lands to the soldiers as personal property. The answer to this is that it is permissible and possible to distribute these lands among himself, but it must be done. This is not obligatory because both types of events are before us in the life of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) formed those of Khaybar but later when Mecca was conquered, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not occupy the lands there. He did not enslave the people there. So this incident is a group that it is not obligatory for the leader or caliph or imam of the Muslims to do this. Rather, it is optional. Islam gave freedom to the people of Mecca. He kept them free. He did not enslave them. And he did not seize their lands. He did not take any booty from Mecca during the conquest of Mecca. So this incident is another evidence in favor of what Omar Ibn Al-Khattab did. We can mention that Omar Ibn Al-Khattab did not take personal decisions. He took decisions through consultation with the companions. And there the companions agreed with him after discussing the expenses. It was a major source of income for the Muslim treasury and Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) thus provided a new financial source for the Islamic state. Some statistics are mentioned in the historical books of Islam. For example, the revenue that came to the Islamic state from Iraq as Kharaj. In that seventh century, 128 million dinars came from Iraq, 20 million from Egypt and it reached a maximum of 14 million dinars from Syria. A huge amount of revenue was coming to the Islamic state and everyone was benefiting from it. There were several other benefits, the number one benefit is that it was benefiting non-Muslims in some cases. Through this, the feudal system or land tenure system was abolished. This is how when in the previous era, kings and kings conquered and occupied an area, they started considering the lands in that conquered area as their personal property and they employed the defeated people to cultivate them. They employed them as farmers and laborers. They worked there and in the end they got nothing except some leftovers, the majority of the part went to the possession of those kings and kings. The farmers did not get anything, they could only work there as laborers. On the other hand, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab did not impose any oppression, but rather determined the kharaj according to the rate of jiz. Those who cultivated those lands. Those non-Muslims saw that even if there was a change here, we were getting a much larger share in exchange for working. In this way, economically, they saw that they were getting a lot of freedom and benefiting economically from the previous kings under whom they were under the rule of the Muslims, from the right of the Muslims to the Muslims.
During 18 Hijri, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) made the Islamic Caliphate’s own seal and stamp-bearing coins. From historical records, it can be seen that Omar Ibn Al-Khattab kept and used the monetary system that was prevalent in the world at that time. The metal coins were kept as they were and were used. The Persian Empire had its own metal coins with their own seals. Gold, silver and copper. Similarly, the Roman Empire also had its own stamped metal coinage system. It was distributed in the same way. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr Siddiq, Al-Maqri narrates that the first Islamic Caliphate to introduce a stamped system was Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him). During the 18th Hijri, the Persians used to add these words to the coins. This was added to the coins, and it would say, Alhamdulillah, all praise is due to Allah. And it would say, La ilaha illallah. There is no god but Allah. And the name of Omar as the Caliph was drawn there. This is the main part of our discussion today. We learned about the Islamic economic system, the Islamic Caliphate economic system, their revenue system. We presented a historical discussion about the sources from which the Islamic state earned its money.
