What they said on imposing jizyah and fighting over it

Abu al-Bakhtari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When Sayyiduna Salman (may Allah be pleased with him) took part in the fighting against the people of Persia, he said: "Hold back until I invite them, as I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) invite the disbelievers." So he (may Allah be pleased with him) went to them and said: "I am a man from among you, and you know my standing among these people. I invite you to Islam. If you accept Islam, you will have what we have, and the same duties will be binding upon you as are binding upon us. And if you refuse, then pay the jizyah by hand and live in humility. And if you refuse this as well, we will fight you." They refused all of it. So he (may Allah be pleased with him) said to the people: "Stand firm before the enemy and begin the fight."

Sayyiduna Buraydah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent someone as commander over an expedition or an army, he (peace and blessings be upon him) would advise him: "When you meet your enemy from among the polytheists, invite them to one of three things or qualities. Whichever of them they agree to, accept it and refrain from fighting them. First, call them to Islam. If they accept, refrain from fighting them and accept their Islam. Then invite them to leave their territory and come to the territory of the Muhajirun, and tell them that if they do this, they will have what the Muhajirun have, and the same duties will be binding upon them as are binding upon the Muhajirun. If they refuse this and choose their own town, then tell them that they will be like the Muslim Bedouin: the judgment of Allah that applies to the believers will apply to them, and they will have no share in the fay' and the spoils, unless they wage jihad alongside the Muslims. If they refuse this as well, call them to paying the jizyah. If they agree, accept it from them and refrain from fighting them. And if they refuse, seek help from Allah and fight them."

Al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) waged jihad against the people of the Arabian Peninsula over Islam, and he accepted nothing from them other than Islam. This was the most excellent jihad. After it came a second jihad, against the most abject of the People of the Book, which is mentioned in the verse: "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day" [Al-Tawbah: 29] to the end of the verse.

Al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Anything other than these two is innovation and misguidance."

Al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote to the people of Yemen: "Whoever prays our prayer, faces our qiblah and eats our slaughtered meat is a Muslim. He has the protection of Allah and the protection of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And whoever refuses these things, the jizyah is due from him."

Abu Wa'il (may Allah have mercy on him) and Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) both said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) to Yemen as governor and ordered him to take as jizyah, from every adult, one dinar or its equivalent in ma'afir.

Aslam (may Allah have mercy on him), the freed slave of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to the commanders who collected the jizyah: "Do not impose the jizyah except on one who has reached adulthood, and do not impose the jizyah on children and women." The narrator said: Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to put a seal on the necks of those who paid the jizyah.

Layth (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "The worshippers of idols are to be fought on the basis of Islam, and the People of the Book are to be fought on the basis of the jizyah."

Masruq (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) to Yemen as governor, he ordered him to take from every adult one dinar or its equivalent in ma'afir.

Abu Mijlaz (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) fixed twenty-four dirhams a year on each person, and removed it from women and children.

Aslam (may Allah have mercy on him), the freed slave of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to all his governors: "Do not collect the jizyah from women and children, and do not collect it except from an adult, and put a seal on their necks. And fix the jizyah per head: on those who have silver, forty dirhams, and along with that the stipends of the Muslims; on those who have gold, four dinars; on the people of Syria, one mudy of wheat and three qist of olive oil; on the people of Egypt, one irdabb of wheat, sets of clothes and honey." Nafi' (may Allah have mercy on him) did not retain how much that amount was. "And on the people of Iraq, fifteen sa' of wheat."

The narrator said: Ubaydullah said: "He also mentioned sets of clothes, which I have not remembered."

Tawus (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Ibrahim bin Sa'd (may Allah have mercy on him) asked Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) about the wealth to be taken from the dhimmis. He (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "What is surplus to need."

Antarah Abu Waki' (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) used to take goods as jizyah: needles from those who deal in needles, large packing needles from those who deal in large packing needles, and rope from the rope-makers.

Abu Awn Muhammad bin Ubaydullah al-Thaqafi (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) fixed the jizyah on men according to their condition: forty-eight dirhams on the wealthy man, twenty-four dirhams on the man of middle means, and twelve dirhams on the poor man.

Ma'qil (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Umar bin Abd al-Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote to his officials: "Only one-third of the jizyah shall be collected from the People of the Book. And nothing shall be collected on behalf of one who has fled or on behalf of one who has died. And nothing shall be collected in the case of the flight of the people of the land."