In this era, the military register encompasses most of what that earlier register covered, and it (1) is the most important of the Muslims’ administrative registers.

The provincial centers had registers for kharāj (land tax) and fay’ (public revenue) to record the funds received. The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) and his successors would hold officials to account for zakat, fay’, and other revenues.

Thus, in these times and in earlier periods, funds have fallen into three categories:

One category (2) the ruler is entitled to collect by the Quran, the Sunnah, and consensus, as we have explained.

Another category is unanimously forbidden to collect. This includes levies (3) taken from the inhabitants (4) of a village for the public treasury because someone was killed among them, even if the deceased has an heir; money taken from a man for an offense carrying a prescribed punishment that he committed (5), with the punishment then waived in exchange; and tolls whose imposition is unanimously deemed impermissible.

A third category is subject to juristic reasoning and disagreement (6), such as the estate of someone with a blood relative who is neither a prescribed-share heir nor