Jizyah – The Tax of being Non-Muslim – Part 1 – The Islamic psyche

 

Jizyah – The Tax of being Non-Muslim – Part 1 – The Islamic psyche

Panka Saxena

Did you know that under Islamic rule all non-Muslims, including Hindus had to pay a huge tax just to remain Hindu? A tax just to retain their dharma? A tax of being non-Muslim; a tax of being a Hindu. Read on.

It wasn’t a quirk of one Islamic ruler. It is the Islamic law - Shariat. It is not just legal but actually obligated upon a Muslim ruler to implement the Jizyah tax on all their remaining non-Muslim subjects. For this it is important to understand the Islamic psyche first.

Dr. Harsh Narain, a scholar of Nyāya-Vaiśeśika, did a wonderful study on Jizyah and what impact it had on the rise of Islam in India in 1990, published by Voice of India. The book was titled ‘Jizyah and the Rise of Islam’.

 I will use Dr. Narain’s words, & denote them by quotation marks. “According to the Prophet, every child is born in Islam, but its parents make it a non-Muslim.” (Bukhari, I, Kitab al-Janaiz, H.1295) So non-Muslims (Hindus) are usurpers and illegal squatters in Islamic view.

 “The Qur’an declares the Muslims to be the best community and raised up to guide and govern humanity (Al 'Imran (3) 110), as vice-regents of God on earth (An-Nur (24) 55; an-Naml (27) 62)…” So Muslims are entrusted to take care of the property of God (entire earth).

“…and Islam is the chosen religion (Al 'Imran (3) 19, 85; al-Ma'idah (5) 3.), destined to triumph over all other religions. (At-Tawbah (9) 33; al-FatH (48) 28; as 'Saff (61) 9.)” So Muslims are the caretakers; Islam is the chosen religion; and it is destined to win.

This is the reason Islamic kingdoms and communities have such a deep conquering mentality. They think it is their right to take away others’ properties and lands. They think it is their duty to conquer the lands and properties of others and they think they will never lose.

 “The Qur’an also says that the earth belongs to Allah. ‘He causes it to be inherited by whom of His servants He will'. ('Inna 'I-arDa li-' llah-i; yurithu-ha man yyasha'u min 'ibadi-hi' Al-A'raf (7) 128.)

“On the basis of it all the Prophet rules that all land belongs to God or himself, the natural corollary being that all land belongs, through God and the Prophet., to the Muslims.” ('A 'Iamu ann al-arDa li 'llah-i wa rasu-ihi'. Bukhari, II, Kitab al-Jihad wa 's-Siyar, H.406.)

 “This serves to vouchsafe to the Muslims the moral right to grab lands in Jihad from non-Muslims. Ibn Taymiyyah, the 14th-century Muslim jurist-theologian, said that Jihad simply restores lands to the Muslims, who enjoy a kind of Divine right over these.”

First point to notice is: according to the Muslim psyche, all non-Muslims, including Hindus are living on Muslim lands and thus are illegal squatters. Thus:

1: They can be evicted; 

2. If in any case they are allowed to live, they have to pay rent or tax.

The Islamic law commands the Muslims to despise the idol worshippers like Hindus. They are called as ‘najas’. And they are not allowed to be even near the holy Ka’bah.

Ayatollah Khomeini wrote: “Eleven things are unclean: urine, excrement, sperm, blood, a dog, a pig, bones, a non-Muslim man and woman, wine, bear, perspiration of the camel that eats filth.” (Bat Ye’or, The Dhimmi)

Ayatollah continues: “The whole body of a non-Muslim is unclean, even his hair, his nails, and all secretions of his body. A child below the age of puberty is unclean if his parents and grandparents are not Muslims…”

Second point to notice is: We, the non-Muslims (Hindus), are illegal squatters on Muslim lands, and on top of that we are as dirty as pigs and as filthy as wine. So we are committing the sin of dirtying the legal land of Muslims by squatting on them with our filthy bodies.

 Third important point is that the Quran commands Muslims to convert non-Muslims. It is their sacred duty. Non-Muslims have three choices – conversion to Islam and death by sword, but there is another choice which results from the above reasoning.

As a surprise to Muslims, non-Muslims like Hindus didn’t accept the one true religion of Islam easily. They would willingly choose death over conversion to Islam. And in those times, it was simply impossible to kill all Hindus, perhaps the most numerous people on earth.

To confront such situations Muslim lawmakers came up with a third solution: Jizyah tax. The Kaffirs could stay non-Muslim, if only for a few years, by paying a hefty tax – the tax of being non-Muslim. It was not different from protection money in today’s world.

Jizyah tax solved many problems. 

1) It gave the Islamic kingdoms a huge source of revenue without much difficulty. 

2) It gave them the satisfaction of insulting Hindus/ non-Muslims. (explained in later threads, how)

3) It encouraged them to convert to Islam.

Islamic kingdoms grew religiously & financially through Jizyah. That is how they financed their wars of conquest in other lands by taking Jizyah from non-Muslims. This is how humiliating it was for Hindus to live under Islamic rule. Coming threads will talk on this.