Section Seven: The Jizyah
The foundational discussion of this section may be summed up in six questions:
- From whom may the jizyah be taken?
- Which categories among them are actually liable for it?
- How much is due?
- When does it become obligatory and when does it lapse?
- How many different rates of jizyah are there?
- How is jizyah revenue to be spent?
First Question – Those from whom the jizyah may be taken
The scholars unanimously agree that it is permissible to levy the jizyah on non-Arab People of the Book and on the Magians, as mentioned earlier. They differ, however, with respect to those who possess no revealed scripture, and to Arabs who are themselves People of the Book—after having concurred, according to some reports, that it is not taken from a Qurashī who follows a scripture. This issue has already been treated.
Second Question – Which individuals within those communities are liable?
They agree that liability depends on three attributes: being male, adult, and free. Consequently, the jizyah is not taken from women or children, because it is paid in lieu of being slain, and the command to fight is directed only against adult men; women and minors have been forbidden to be killed. Likewise, they unanimously hold that it is not taken from slaves.
They do differ concerning certain subclasses: the insane and the bedridden; the very elderly; hermits and monastics; and the destitute—whether the jizyah becomes a debt collected when such a person later attains means, or not. All of these are matters of juristic reasoning for which there is no definitive textual ruling. The root of the disagreement is whether these categories would, in principle, be put to death if they refused payment.
Third Question – The amount that is due
On this they disagree. Mālik holds that the obligatory amount is what ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—fixed: four dinars for those who deal in gold and forty dirhams for those who deal in silver, along with provisions for the Muslims and hospitality for three days—no more and no less.
Al-Shāfiʿī says: the minimum is fixed at one dinar, while no maximum is set; it depends on whatever terms are agreed upon in the treaty.
Others maintain that no specific rate is fixed at all; the matter is left to the discretion of the Imām. This is the position of al-Thawrī.
Abū Ḥanīfah and his colleagues say: the jizyah amounts to twelve dirhams, twenty-four dirhams, and eight