The permanent revenues of the Bait ul-Mal are: Booties (Fai’), Spoils (Ghana’im), Land Tax (Kharaj), Head Tax (Jizya), the different types of public property revenues, the revenues of the State properties, the tithes (Ushr), the fifth of the hidden treasure (Rikaz), the minerals, and the properties of Zakat. But the Zakat properties are kept in a special place in the Bait ul-Mal, and they are not spent except for the eight categories mentioned in the Qur’an, and nothing of them should be spent for other than the eight categories, whether the State affairs or the Ummah’s affairs. But the Khalifah is allowed to spend them, according to his opinion and Ijtihad, for whom He sees fit of the eight categories. He has the right to give them to one or more of these categories, or to all of them. The revenues of the public properties are also kept in a special place (hold) in the Bait ul-Mal, and are not mixed with others, because they are owned by all the Muslims, from whence the Khalifah spends them, within the Shari’ah rules, in the interest of the Muslims according to his opinion and Ijtihad.
The other properties, which belong to the Bait ul-Mal, are all gathered together, and spent on the affairs of the State and the Ummah, on the eight categories and on anything that the State decides. If these properties meet the needs of the citizens, that is well and good; otherwise the State levies taxes upon the Muslims in order to accomplish what is required of it in terms of looking after their affairs. In regards to the way these taxes are enacted, it should be done according to the obligations which the Shar’a put upon the Muslims. So concerning duties which are obligatory upon Muslims to carry out and which require expenses from the State for their execution, the State has the right to levy taxes from the Muslims so that it can execute them.Whereas those issues which are not duties upon the Muslims, such as the repayment of the debts of the dead, the State is not allowed to levy taxes in order to pay them off. If it had funds available in the Bait ul-Mal then it would carry this out, otherwise the State is not obliged to do so. Therefore, the State has the right to collect taxes in these instances, in which case it has to proceed as follows:
1. To meet the expenses due upon the Bait ul-Mal for the poor, the needy, the wayfarer and in the carrying out of Jihad.
2. To meet the expenses due upon the Bait ul-Mal as compensation, such as the expenses of the employees and the provisions of the army and the like.
3. To meet what is due upon the Bait ul-Mal in the form of services and utilities, such as the construction of roads, production of water, building of mosques, schools and hospitals and other things whose establishment are considered necessary for the Ummah and without which she would be harmed.
4. To meet the expenses due upon the Bait ul-Mal that arise in the form of necessity, such as emergency incidents like famine, floods, earthquakes, an attack by an enemy and the like.
5. To levy taxes to meet debts which the State incurred in order to carry out an obligation due upon all the Muslims, from any of the four cases mentioned above or whatever may have resulted from them, or any matter obliged upon the Muslims by Shar’a.
Other revenues which are kept in the Bait ul-Mal and spent upon the affairs of the citizens are the tenth (customs) collected from the citizens of countries at war with the Muslims, or which have treaties, and the properties which are of the public property or the State property, or the property which is inherited from those who had no inheritors.
Concerning the revenues of the Bait ul-Mal which exceeds the expenses due upon on it; if this excess came from booties then it is spent as grants which are given to the people. If the extra comes from Jizya or Kharaj, it is kept to meet the requirements of any emergencies which may fall upon the Muslims, and it should not be waived from those who are obliged to pay, because the divine law has put the Jizya on everyone (non-Muslim male, mature and able to pay), and the Kharaj on the land according to its capacity. If the extra came from Zakat it is kept in the Bait ul-Mal until any of the eight categories has demands upon it, whereupon it is spent on them. If the extra came from that which is due upon Muslims, then it would be dropped and they are excused from paying.