AN UNPOPULAR TAX

There is an interesting hadIs which shows that the zakAt tax was unpopular even with the highest.  �Umar was appointed the collector.  When he reported that KhalId b. WalId (who later became a famous Muslim general) and even the Prophet�s own uncle, �AbbAs, had refused to pay the tax, Muhammad replied: �You are unjust to KhalId, for he reserved the armours and weapons for the sake of Allah; and as for �AbbAs, I shall be responsible. . . . �Umar, bear in mind, the uncle of a person is like his father� (2148).

The resentment against zakAt was general.  It was particularly strong among the non-Medinan Arab tribes, who shared the burden of the tax but not its benefits.  The Bedouins complained to the Prophet that the �collectors of Sadaqa come to us and treat us unjustly.  Upon this the Messenger of Allah said: Please your collectors� (2168).

But things were rougher and not as easily settled as this hadIs seems to suggest.  After the conquest of Mecca, when the power of Muhammad became supreme, the collection of the tithe became aggressive.  In the beginning of the ninth year of the Hijra (Hegira), parties of collectors were sent out in different directions to realize the tax from the KilAb, GhifAr, Aslam, FazAr, and several other tribes.  It seems that the opposition of a section of the tribe of Band TamIm to the collection was somewhat forceful.  So Muhammad sent a punitive force consisting of fifty Arab horsemen, who took the tribe by surprise and brought fifty men, women, and children back to Medina as hostages.  They had to be ransomed, and after this the tax collection became smoother.

The QurAn itself is an eloquent witness to the Arab resentment against the tax.  Allah warns Muhammad: �Some of desert Arabs look upon their payments as a fine, and they wait a turn of fortune against you; but against them shall a turn of evil fortune be; for God both hears and knows� (9:98).

In fact, the resentment was so great that as soon as Muhammad died, the Arab tribes rose in revolt against the infant Muslim state and had to be reconquered.  Their opposition ceased only when they became partners in the growing Muslim imperialism and their zakAt obligation was drowned in the immense gains derived from military conquests and colonization abroad.

author : ram swarup