Islamic taxes

{{Short description|Taxes sanctioned by Islamic law}}

File:Jizya_document_Chokmanovo_1615.jpg

Islamic taxes are taxes sanctioned by Islamic law.{{cite book|editor1-last=Böwering|editor1-first=Gerhard|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=545|isbn=978-0691134840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&pg=PA545}}

They are based on both "the legal status of taxable land" and on "the communal or religious status of the taxpayer".

Islamic taxes include

• zakat - one of the five pillars of Islam. Only imposed on Muslims, it is generally described as a 2.5% tax on savings for charity. As stated in the Quran 9:60, "Indeed, [prescribed] charitable offerings are only [to be given] to the poor and the indigent, and to those who work on [administering] it, and to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to [free] those in bondage, and to the debt-ridden, and for the cause of God, and to the wayfarer. [This is] an obligation from God. And God is all-knowing, all-wise." Outlined in this verse are the 8 categories where Zakat is eligible.https://www.zakat.org/the-eight-kinds-of-people-who-receive-zakat
• jizya - a per capita yearly tax historically levied by Islamic states on certain non-Muslim subjects—dhimmis—permanently residing in Muslim lands under Islamic law, the tax excluded the poor, women, children and the elderly.{{cite book|last1=Abdel-Haleem|first1=Muhammad|authorlink=Muhammad Abdel-Haleem|title=Understanding the Qur'ān: Themes and Style|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingqur00hale|url-access=limited|date=8 Sep 2010|publisher=I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd|isbn=978-1845117894|pages=[https://archive.org/details/understandingqur00hale/page/n78 70], 79}}{{cite book|first=Khaled|last=Abou Al-Fadl|year=2002|author-link=Khaled Abou Al-Fadl|title=The Place of Tolerance in Islam|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-0229-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou |page=21 |quote=. When the Qur'an was revealed, it was common inside and outside of Arabia to levy poll taxes against alien groups. Building upon the historical practice, classical Muslim jurists argued that the poll tax is money collected by the Islamic polity from non-Muslims in return for the protection of the Muslim state. If the Muslim state was incapable of extending such protection to non-Muslims, it was not supposed to levy a poll tax.}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20150908213953/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1206 Jizyah] The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2010), Oxford University Press, Quote = Jizyah: Compensation. Poll tax levied on non-Muslims as a form of tribute and in exchange for an exemption from military service, based on Quran 9:29. (see below)
• kharaj - a land tax initially imposed only on non-Muslims but soon after mandated for Muslims as well.
• ushr - a 10% tax on the harvests of irrigated land and 10% tax on harvest from rain-watered land and 5% on Land dependent on well water.{{cite book|last1=Nasr|first1=Seyyed Vali Reza|title=Islamic Leviathan : Islam and the Making of State Power: Islam and the ...|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamicleviathan00nasr_0/page/144 144]|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicleviathan00nasr_0|url-access=registration|quote=islamic taxes.|accessdate=11 September 2014}} The term has also been used for a 10% tax on merchandise imported from states that taxed the Muslims on their products.{{cite book|last1=Fauzia|first1=Amelia|title=Faith and the State: A History of Islamic Philanthropy in Indonesia|date=21 February 2013|publisher=BRILL|page=78|isbn=978-9004233973|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4oxTpPvecUC&q=ushr+merchandise&pg=PA78|accessdate=11 September 2014}} Caliph `Umar ibn Al-Khattāb was the first Muslim ruler to levy ushr.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
• khums ({{langx|ar|خُمْس}} {{IPA|ar|xums}}) a tax of one-fifth (20%) of wealth acquired as the spoils of war; and, according to most Muslim jurists, other specified types of income, towards various designated beneficiaries.{{cite book |author1=A. Zysow |author2=R. Gleave |editor1-last=P. J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. 12, Supplement |date=2004 |publisher=Brill |isbn=90-04-13974-5 |pages=531–5 |edition=2 |chapter=KHUMS}} In Islamic legal terminology, "spoils of war" (al-ghanima) refers to property and wealth looted by the Muslim army after battling with or raiding non-Muslims.Vikør, K. S. (2000), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1596169 Jihād,'ilm and taṣawwuf: Two Justifications of Action from the Idrīsī Tradition], Studia Islamica, No. 90 (2000), 153-176

The taxes stipulated by Islamic law generally did not generate enough revenue even for the limited expenditures made by pre-modern governments, and rulers were forced to impose additional taxes, which were condemned by the ulema.{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Böwering|editor1-first=Gerhard|author=Patricia Crone|title=Traditional political thought|encyclopedia=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press (Kindle edition)|page=557}}

According to scholar Murat Çizakça, only zakat, jizya and kharaj are mentioned in the Buktasira.{{cite book|last1=Çizakça|first1=Murat|title=Islamic Capitalism and Finance: Origins, Evolution and the Future|date=2011|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|page=162|isbn=9780857931481|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFfe9bC7_70C}}{{Clarify|what is Buktasira and why should the reader care?|date=March 2019}}

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