Allah has entrusted to us then says, “This is for you, and this was given to me as a gift”? Why did he not stay in his father’s or mother’s house and see whether he would be given gifts or not? By Him in whose hand is my soul, whatever he takes from it, he will bring on the Day of Resurrection, carrying it on his neck—whether a camel grunting, a cow lowing, or a sheep bleating.’ Then he raised his hands until we could see the pale skin of his armpits, and said, ‘O Allah, have I conveyed the message? O Allah, have I conveyed the message? O Allah, have I conveyed the message?’—three times.”

Likewise, preferential treatment shown to governors in transactions such as sales, leases, profit-sharing partnerships, orchard-tending partnerships, sharecropping, and the like is a form of gift. For this reason, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, took half the wealth of some of his officials, including men of merit and religious integrity who were not suspected of dishonesty. He did so only because of the preferential treatment and other advantages they had received on account of their office. The circumstances called for this, for he was a just ruler who distributed equally. When both ruler and subjects changed, however, each person was obliged to fulfill whatever obligations he could, refrain from what was forbidden to him, and not treat as forbidden what Allah had permitted him.

People may be afflicted with governors who refuse gifts and the like so that they can thereby fully exact their unjust demands from them, while neglecting the duty Allah has imposed on them to attend to people’s needs