Most of the material for this article has been taken from the lectures of Mufti Muhammad Saeed Khan. If there is a point, in your opinion, that does not carry weight, it is due to the shortcomings of my translation skills, and not because of the material in the Lectures of Mufti Saeed.
One of the objections raised by some Non-Muslims on Islam is that whenever Muslims got power to rule over Non-Muslims they imposed a discriminatory tax on them, i.e. Jizyah.
Basically, the propaganda against Islam is that if an Islamic state is formed somewhere in the world, the Muslims would impose Jizyah on Non-Muslims just because they have not converted to Islam. So this tax is forced upon on people of different faiths because of their religion, and thus discrimination takes place, and freedom of religion is taken away. The only choice remains is that either one converts to Islam or pays this unjust tax.
In Sha Allah (God Willing) after reading this article the misconceptions raised against Islam on the aspect of Jizyah will be removed.
What is the reality of Jizyah? Islam teaches us that everyone has a right to defend himself; and there is protection of life and wealth for all human beings irrespective of their race, colour, religion or gender. For example, if a robber attacks someone, and that person while defending his life and wealth kills that robber, even then no one has the right to file criminal charges against him. So, the relatives of that robber cannot take the defender to court. The same principle when taken on a larger scale gives Muslims the right to defend the entire state.
It is the obligation of an Islamic Government to provide certain things free of charge to the public. For example, medical and education should be free for everyone under Islamic rule. Similarly the Islamic Government should provide jobs for the unemployed; otherwise the state is obliged to take care of the people in need financially. This was the case during the rule of the rightly guided caliphs.
Therefore, unemployment benefits, medical and education are free for everyone regardless of their religion. In addition, free residence and transport is also to be provided for the government employees.
On the other hand, if an Islamic State is being attacked by a foreign nation then it should be the duty of every citizen, regardless of their religion to defend their land, since the state provided so many facilities to them free of charge.
Usually a Muslim State is attacked by Non-Muslims. What Islam says is that it is not correct for a person to fight against his own brothers in religion: i.e. a Christian should not fight a Christian or a Hindu should not fight a Hindu (in case India attacks Pakistan, for instance). The logic behind this is that there is a chance that treason will take place. The reason being that a soldier may not be happy fighting against people of his own faith (there were instances of this in the Iraq war). Islam does not force Non-Muslims killing the people of their own faith in the battlefield.
So an Islamic Government provides the above mentioned facilities and gives its citizens protection; in addition, the life of a Non-Muslim is more precious as compared to a life of a Muslim in an Islamic state (as Prophet peace be upon him said that if under Muslim rule a Non-Muslim dies and justice is not done in that instance then I will argue for that person on the day of Judgement). The Islamic Government for the protection provided imposes a tax on Non-Muslims. It is a trade off: i.e. they will not be drafted to fight, and the government will collect a tax and use it for their security.
The other thing to note is that if this tax was just imposed because a person is not a Muslim, then every Non-Muslim would have had to pay Jizyah. On the contrary, there is no Jizyah on women, children, retired elderly, disabled, umemployed, poor and religious leaders who pray and meditate in their places of worship.
The Muslims were very careful and honest in all regards and especially when it came to the affairs of the Non-Muslims. Abu Yusuf gives the following report:
After getting on peaceful terms with the people of Syria and collecting the dues of the Jizyah, news reached Abu ‘Ubeida that the Emperor Heraclius has raised an enormous army to attack. The Muslims had to concentrate all their energies on the impending encounter. The effect of this was great on Abu ‘Ubeida and the Muslims. He sent messages to the governors of cities with whose citizens he had made peace, asking them to return to their subjects the paid dues of the Jizyah with an instruction to tell them: ‘We hereby return to you the money you have paid us, because of the news of the enemy troops amassed to attack us. The agreement between us was that we should protect you, and as this is not now in our power, we return you that all we took. But if we are victorious we shall consider ourselves bound to you by the old terms of the agreement.’ When this was delivered to the Non-Muslims and their money returned to them, they told the Muslims: ‘May God bring you back to us and grant you victory over the Romans had it been they, they would not have given us back anything, but would have taken all that remained with us.’ [Kitab Al-Kharaj]
In short, Non-Muslims (males who are employed and are financially stable) are required to pay Jizyah to the Islamic State. In return, the State promises to protect them. It is unfortunate that certain individuals try to portray Jizyah as an unjust tax; they only paint one aspect of the picture and ignore the rest.
