a group of them stayed behind to cultivate it, the religious interests that no one else could discharge would have gone unattended. When the era of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived, many lands had been conquered and the number of Muslims had increased, so they no longer needed the Jews and expelled them. The Prophet ﷺ had already said, “We shall allow you to remain in it for as long as we wish,” and in another wording, “for as long as Allah allows you to remain.”1

At the end of his life the Prophet ﷺ instructed that they be removed, declaring, “Expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula.”2 Because of this, a group of scholars—including Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī—held that non-Muslims may reside in Muslim territories under the jizya only when the Muslims have need of them; once that need ceases they are to be expelled, just as was done with the people of Khaybar. There is, however, scholarly disagreement on this point, which is not our concern here.

The issue under discussion is that when people require the services of millers and bakers, the need takes two forms. First, they may need only the labor itself, such as workers who grind grain and bake bread for householders. These workers are entitled to wages, yet in times of necessity they may claim no more than the usual rate, like any other craftsmen. Second, the community may need both the craft and the act of selling: they need someone who buys wheat, grinds it, bakes it, and then sells the bread, for people must purchase bread in the markets. If such merchants were left free to buy up all the imported wheat and then sell the flour and bread at whatever price they pleased while the public still depended on that grain, the harm would be tremendous. These are traders on whom the zakat of commerce is obligatory according to the four imams and the great majority of Muslim scholars.3