Chapter on Jizya

Introduction

The term jizya is derived either from jazāʾ, meaning “requital,” or from mujāzāt, meaning “compensation,” because by paying it they recompense us for the protection we afford them.

In the Sharīʿah it is a sum of money taken each year from the People of the Book as payment for their residence in Muslim territory, the sparing of their lives, and their protection from aggressors.

It is levied only on the followers of the two revealed scriptures—the Torah and the Gospel—namely Jews and Christians, together with anyone who professes the same faiths.

The scholars have included the Magians (Zoroastrians) in this ruling, for they possess a dubious remnant of scripture. Al-Bukhārī relates from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf that “the Prophet ﷺ collected jizya from the Magians of Hajar.” Al-Shāfiʿī transmits that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Treat them as you treat the People of the Book.”

As for all others, jizya is not accepted from them; only Islam—or warfare—remains, as stated in the sound hadith reported by Ibn ʿUmar: “I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no deity but Allah.”

Al-Ḥajjāwī says in Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ: “No jizya is taken from those whom it is forbidden to kill when captured—such as a woman, a child, an insane person, someone chronically ill, a blind person, an infirm old man, or a monk secluded in his hermitage—for killing them is unlawful, and jizya is taken in lieu of killing.”

Likewise, it is not required of a destitute person who is incapable of paying it and has no gainful employment.