Islam's Reformers .pdf

government’s duty is only to demand the zakât of al-amwal azzâhiraand distribute it to the prescribed persons. Thegovernment’s owning this right requires its being independent,Islamic and just and learned in those branches of religiousknowledge concerning zakât. If the government is cruel incollecting zakât but just in giving it to the prescribed persons, itis permissible to pay it to the government though the owner maydistribute it himself. If the government is just in collecting zakâtbut cruel in distributing it, it is wâjib not to pay zakât to thegovernment; it is not permissible to pay it to such a government.If the government takes the zakât with the owners’ wish or byforce, zakât will not have been paid. It is necessary for theowners themselves to separate and distribute it to theprescribed people, again. Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam) used to distribute the collected zakât to the personswhom he deemed suitable. Then, Allâhu ta’âlâ declared thekinds of persons one by one whom zakât would be paid andcommanded not to spend it at other places. It has beenreported unanimously that an unbeliever should not be paidzakât.”It is written at the end of the section on kafâlat in ad-Durr almukhtâr,“At-Tarsûsî says that it is not permissible for theSultan [the government] to expropriate anybody’s property.Only, if the zakât-collecting officials of Bait al-mâl, governorsand the clerks of Bait al-mâl oppress Muslims andmisappropriate their property, the government can confiscatethis illegally obtained property. So is the case with the clerksand officials of pious foundations. If they spend prodigally, leada life of dissipation and revelry and build apartment houses forthemselves, the government confiscates their property anddismisses them from office. It returns the property which theyhave obtained unjustly to the pious foundations. If it is notknown for certain from what pious foundation they have takenthem, it gives them to Bait al-mâl. Khalîfa ’Umar (radiy-Allâhu’anh) sent Abû Huraira (radiy-Allâhu ’anh) to Bahrain as agovernor to collect zakât. Later he dismissed him. Hecommandeered his possessions and took his 12,000 gold coinsaway from him. After a while, he wanted to assign him thissame duty again but the latter refused it. This fact is reported byHâkim and others.” On this account, Ibn ’Âbidîn comments:“The government’s commandeering the possessions of the- 245 -