Chapter: The Jizya and the Tithes of the People under Covenant

The jizya is levied only on a free, adult, male unbeliever who is physically able to earn a living. It is not collected from women, minors, those whose minds are overcome by insanity, hermit monks, the infirm elderly, or the destitute. Nor are the wealthy required to pay it on behalf of the poor.

In Mālik’s view, the jizya may be accepted from every category of unbeliever—People of the Book, Magians, idol-worshippers, and others, whether Arab or non-Arab—except the apostate, for no jizya is taken from him since he is not allowed to remain in his apostasy. If an unbeliever moves from one non-Islamic religion to another, he is left upon it and the jizya is taken from him.

The fixed amount is four dinars from those who deal in gold and forty dirhams from those who deal in silver; it is neither increased nor reduced, except for someone who can afford only a lesser sum. It has also been said that the amount may be increased for their rich and that their poor should be assessed according to what they can bear, even if only a single dirham, and to this opinion Mālik eventually returned.

When any of them reaches puberty, the jizya is collected immediately; one does not wait for a full year from that day. Whoever embraces Islam is exempted from all jizya that had accrued, even if he accepted Islam one day before the end of the year—or one day after it—according to Mālik.

If one of them absents himself and hides, and is later apprehended, the arrears for the elapsed period are taken from him. No zakāt is due from a dhimmī on any of his property apart from the head-tax itself, and, according to Mālik, this ruling applies across the board by way of predominance (taghlīb).