The Kharaj is the right of the Muslims imposed on the land that is conquered from the Kuffar, either by the use of force or by peaceful means, it would thus be a Kharaj of force and a Kharaj of peace.

It is the levy imposed on any land which the Muslims have conquered from the disbelievers by the use of force, such as the lands of Iraq, Ash- Sham and Egypt. The basic nature of Kharaj is referred to in Allah (swt)’s saying:

“What Allah (swt) has bestowed on His Messenger (saw) (and taken away) from the people of the townships, belongs to Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw), to the kindred, orphans, the needy and the wayfarer; in order that it may not remain a circuit between the wealthy among you. So take what the Messenger (saw) gives you and refrain from what he prohibits you. And fear Allah (swt); for Allah (swt) is strict in punishment. (Some part is due) to the indigent Muhajirs, those who were expelled from their homes and their property, while seeking grace from Allah (swt) and (His) good pleasure, and aiding Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw): such are indeed the truthful;- And those who before them had homes (in Madinah) and had adopted the faith,- show their affection to such as came to them for refuge, and entertain no desire in their hearts for things given to the (latter), but give them preference over themselves, even though poverty was their (own lot). And those saved from their covetousness of their own souls,- they are the ones that achieve prosperity. And those who came after them say: “Our Lord! Forgive us, and our brethren who came before us into the faith.” [Al-Hashr: 7-10]

These verses have been used by ‘Umar to support his argument about not dividing the lands of Iraq, Ash-Sham and Egypt among the fighters, as requested by Bilal, Abdul Rahman and Al-Zubayr. They asked him to divide these lands which Allah (swt) had bestowed on them with the help of their swords, arguing that this was what the Messenger of Allah (saw) did with the land of Khaybar, for he divided that land among the fighters after he had conquered it. ‘Umar is reported to have said to the Ansar, when he summoned them to consult them, in support of his argument: “I have decided to make the land and their trees an inalienable property, and to impose on them the Kharaj and on their owners the Jizya, these would be a Fai’ to the Muslims, be it the fighters, their children and those who come after them. Do you not think that these frontiers (front lines) need to be manned by soldiers? Do you not think that these great cities of Ash-Sham, Al-Jazira, Al-Kufa, Basra and Egypt need to be fortified with armed forces to whom we ought to be generous? Where do we give them from, if the lands and the trees were divided?.” ‘Umar then backed his argument with evidence from the Qur’an. He recited the verses of Al-Fai’ until he reached Allah (swt)’s saying:

“And those who came after them” [Al- Hashr: 10]

and then said: “This verse refers to all the people till the day of Judgement, and every single Muslim is entitled to share of this Fai’.” The Ansar agreed with him and said: “Your opinion is right, you have said the right thing and come up with the right decision, if these frontlines and these cities were not fortified by the fighters, and if those men were not given provisions, the disbelievers would return to their cities.” Upon this ‘Umar said: “The matter has become clear to me, do you know a man who has a ability and experience in measurement, who could survey the land and assess the fruits reasonably?.” Then all agreed that Uthman Ibn Hanif was the best man for the job and said: “You can rely on him in more complicated matters than this, for he has vision, intelligence and experience.” ‘Umar then hurried to him and assigned him with the task of surveying the land of the Sawad (land of Iraq and Iran).

Uthman then set off and surveyed the Sawad. He put on the Sawad a Kharaj, then reported back to ‘Umar who approved the survey. The revenues from the Sawad of Al-Kufa alone reached before the death of ‘Umar a hundred million Dirhams. The Dirham at the time was equal to the weight of the Miskal. ‘Umar therefore allowed the landowners to keep the land and imposed on them a Kharaj which they paid to the Bait ul-Mal and ‘Umar made the land a Fai’ for the Muslims till the day of Judgement. It will remain a Kharaj until Allah (swt) inherits the Earth and those on it, it cannot be transferred or converted into a ‘’Ushr (to the land), even if the landowners embraced Islam or sold the land to a Muslim. This is because the nature of the land will remain as such and will not change, i.e. a land that has been conquered by force and a land that a Kharaj has been imposed on.

Tariq Ibnu Shihab reported: ‘‘Umar b. Al-Khattab wrote to me about the tribe of Dahqana in Nahr Al-Malik, who had embraced Islam. He wrote: “Give the tribe her land so that they pay the Kharaj of that land.” This clearly indicates that ‘Umar b. Al-Khattab did not waiver the Kharaj imposed on the land conquered by force and whose owners embraced Islam, and he ordered them to continue to pay the Kharaj of that land after becoming Muslims.

It is the Kharaj levied on every land whose inhabitants a peace treaty has been signed. It will be subject to the peace treaty agreed between the Muslims and the people with whom they made peace. If the peace treaty was on the basis that the land belongs to us or that it allows its inhabitants to settle there in return for Kharaj which they will pay then this Kharaj will remain for ever on this land and its land shall remain Kharaji land until the Day of Judgement, even if it was transferred to Muslims through the inhabitants conversion to Islam or by purchasing it by Muslims, etc.

However if the peace treaty was on the basis that the land belonged to them and that it shall remain in their hands and they shall settle there for a known amount of Kharaj which would be levied on them, then this Kharaj will be in the position of the Jizya. In this case it will cease if they embrace Islam or sell the land to Muslims due to the saying of Allah (swt) : “And fulfil the covenant. Verily! The covenant, will be questioned about.” [Al-Isra: 34] It is also due to the Prophet (saw)’s saying: ‘Muslims are bound by their conditions’. As for if they sold their land to a Kafir then the Kharaj will remain and will not cease because the Kafir is from the people of Kharaj and Jizya.

Kharaj is different to the ‘’Ushr. ‘’Ushr is what is taken from the produce of ’Ushri land, and the ‘Ushri lands are:

a. The Arabian Peninsula, because its inhabitants were from the worshippers of idols, and nothing was accepted from them except Islam and the Messenger of Allah (saw) did not impose any Kharaj on them even though he had fought and conquered a number of places in the peninsula.

b. Any land whose inhabitants embraced Islam like Indonesia and South East Asia. The Messenger of Allah (saw) siad: ‘I have been ordered to fight the people until they say ‘there is no god but Allah (swt)’. Whoever says ‘there is no god but Allah (swt)’ then his life and property are safe from me except for the right on his property and his reckoning will be with Allah (swt)’. The land is in the position of property.

c. Every land opened by force and divided by the Khalifah between the Muslim fighters. This is like the land of Khaybar. This applies to lands partially left in the hands of Muslim fighters, as ‘Umar allowed the army of Ash-Sham to gain possession of the shores of the Irbid river in Hums, and Marj Barada in Damascus.

d. Every land with whose inhabitants a peace treaty has been signed that we leave their land in their possession in return for a Kharaj which they will pay. It will become ’Ushri land if they embrace Islam or sell it to a Muslim.

e. Every dead land which has been revived by a Muslim. He said: ‘Whosoever revives a land that belongs to nobody then he is more deserving of it’. Bukhari reported the same Hadith with the words: ‘Whosoever inhabits a land that belongs to nobody he is more deserving of it’.

Kharaj is imposed from the beginning on the land of ‘Unwah (opened by force) which the Kuffar used to own at the time it was conquered. If the land continues in the hands of the Kuffar then Kharaj will be paid for it whether the land was cultivated or not. It will have no ’Ushr because ‘Ushr is Zakat and the Kuffar do not pay Zakat. If they become Muslim or sell it to a Muslim the Kharaj does not cease because its description as a land opened by force remains for all time. So they have to pay the ’Ushr with the Kharaj. This is because Kharaj is a right obliged on the land and ’Ushr is a right obliged on the produce of the land owned by a Muslim according to the Ayat and Ahadith. There is no contradiction between the two rights because they became obligatory for two different causes. This is similar to the case when a Muslim in Ihram (state of ritual consecration) kills in the Haram (ritual places) a hunt (animal) owned by somebody, he is then obliged to pay its value to its owner and the penalty due upon him to Allah (swt) As for what the Hanafis cite as proof for not combining the ’Ushr and Kharaj from a Hadith which they report from the Messenger (saw) : ‘There shall be no combining of the ’Ushr and Kharaj in the land of a Muslim’. It is not a Hadith and the scholars of Hadith did not confirm if it was from the speech of the Messenger (saw) .

So the payment of Kharaj is started first. If after paying Kharaj there remains crops and fruits which reach the Nisab on which Zakat has to be payed then the Zakat is exacted. If it does not reach the Nisab then there is no Zakat on him.

Now that we are very distant from the time of the conquests and the great majority of the people have become Muslims in all the lands whether conquered by force or by peace treaty. Now after the majority of the Diwans and registers, which distinguished the land which is granted, revived and settled in from the land taken by force or peace treaty became obsolete, then this can be distinguished in the following manner: by considering the most predominant general situation of the land that is known to have been opened by force, or its people have embraced Islam or it has been dealt with in a specific way.

The whole of the land of Iraq, including Kuwait, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Bukhara, Samarqand, the land of Ash-Sham, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan and north Africa, all of these are considered Kharaji land because they have been opened by force. Kharaj must be paid over them by the Muslims and Kuffar. Payment of ’Ushr is likewise obligatory on the Muslims if the produce of the land is such that Zakat is obligatory or that it reaches the Nisab after paying the Kharaj, except those Muslims who can prove with evidences and documents that their land is ‘Ushri land, who will then not pay Kharaj but but will pay the ’Ushr as Zakat.

As for the Arabian Peninsula including Yemen, Indonesia, south east Asia and other such lands they are ’Ushri and not Kharaji land. It is only obligatory to pay ’Ushr, as a Zakat on the produce on which Zakat is obligatory.

When putting down the Kharaj the Khalifah must delagate persons from the people of experience, who know how to survey the land, value it and estimate the produce, as it happened with ‘’Umar b. Al-Khattab when he wanted to survey the rural area of Iraq (As-Sawad) in order to fix the Kharaj. He consulted the Muslims as to who should be assigned for this task. He told them. The matter has become clear for me. So who is the man who has vision and intellect to put the land in its right level and place on its owners of the Kuffar the amount of Kharaj that they can afford. So they all agreed upon ‘Uthman b. Haneef. They said: “You can send him to tasks that are more important. He is a man of vision, intelligence and experience.” Thus ‘Umar hastened to him and assigned him the responsibility of surveying the Sawad.

The one assigned to estimate the Kharaj must consider the reality of the land in terms of whether it is very fertile, it gives quality and plentiful produce, or it is of low quality and gives little low quality yield. Is it watered by rain, from springs and wells or canals and rivers? Is it watered by rain, sprinklers or machines, because the cost is not the same. What types of crops and fruits are cultivated and produced, because there are crops and fruits whose price is expensive and of a high value and other crops that are cheap and of low value. What is its location? Is it close to the cities and their markets or far from them? Does it have a passable road so that it can be reached and its harvest can be transferred to the markets or are the paths rugged?

All of these matters have to be taken into consideration and observed so that the land is not harmed or overburdened. ’Umar b. Al-Khattab asked ‘Uthman b. Haneef and Huzayfah b. al-Yaman after they had returned from surveying the land and fixed the Kharaj. How did you fix the Kharaj on the land? Perhaps you burdened the people you worked with what they cannot bear? Huzayfah said: “I left some extra.” And ‘Uthman said: “I left the weak ones, if I wanted I could have taken from them.” As well one must bear in mind that land owners are left a certain amount in terms of the circumstances they may be forced into by natural disasters and crop damage. Just as we see the Messenger of Allah (saw) ordered that in estimating the crops for the payment of Zakat that a third or a fourth of the date palm be left. He said: ‘Reduce the estimate for in the property there is bequests, the one affected by cold weather (Ariyyah), the falling down crops and natural disasters.’ The Kharaj can be fixed on the land or it can be on the crops and fruit. If it is imposed on the land then its year is considered the lunar year because it is the year with which one counts the times of the Zakat, blood money, Jizya and others according to the Shari’ah. If it is imposed on the crops and fruit then the ripeness of the crops and fruit, and their sale will be their year and time-span. The Kharaj can be paid with money, or money and grains or it can be a share of the crops and fruit. Its year will be when the crops and fruit ripen and they are sold. These days it may be easier for the Kharaj to be paid in money on the land according to what is cultivated on it.

Setting the value of Kharaj which is imposed on the land must be done by experts who know how to fix it as clarified in the previous topic as ‘Umar b. al-Khattab did when he sent ‘Uthman b. Haneef after he had consulted the people about his appointment due to the fact that he enjoyed vision, intelligence and experience. He assigned him for Kufa, over the Euphrates just as he assigned Huzayfah b. al-Yamaan over the area beyond the Tigris river. So they surveyed the Sawad (rural areas of Iraq) and calculated that which was liable to Kharaj and they raised the matter with ‘Umar who then approved it. It was narrated from ‘Amr b. Maymun who said: “I saw ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and Ibn Haneef came to him and began speaking to him and I heard him say: “By Allah (swt)! If I levied a Dirham and Qafeez of food on every patch of arable land then that would not be overburdening for them, nor will it wear them out.” In a report from Muhammad (saw) b. ‘Abeed Ath-Thaqafi he said: “Umar b. al-Khattab levied, on the people of Sawad for every patch of arable land whether populated or filled with water, a Dirham and Qafeez and on the wet land he levied five Dirhams’. Ash-Sha’bi narrated from ‘Umar: that he sent ‘Uthman b. Haneef to Sawad and he levied two Dirhams on a patch of barley, on a patch of wheat he levied four Dirhams, on a patch of sugar cane he levied six Dirhams, on date palm he levied eight Dirhams, on grapes he levied ten Dirhams and on olives he levied twelve Dirhams”.

From this it becomes clear that the value of Kharaj set down by ‘Uthman b. Haneef on the land of Iraq and approved by ‘Umar was not the same. It was different considering the lands, their productivity, means of watering, and type of crop cultivated. He took Kharaj from the inhabited land which is being cultivated and from the copious land overflowing with water. He took Kharaj on the land, and crops and fruit. He valued them with money and with grains. The evaluation was according to ability and the people were not dealt with injustice or difficulty, and that he left for them some crops.

Since this evaluation was imposed in a certain time and it is based on Ijtihad. That is why it is not an obligatory evaluation prescribed by the Shari’ah which cannot be overstepped by any increase or decrease. Rather it is allowed for the Khalifah to increase it or decrease it according to his opinion or Ijtihad, and according to the altering circumstances of the land. This is in terms of the increase in the fertility or lack of it, making the land more arable or being ruined or unused because of natural disasters ravaging the land. It could be in terms of the increase in the water, its paucity, its supply being completely stopped, disease or destruction, an expensive or cheap price. All of these alterations have an effect on the evaluation. They must be taken into account and the evaluation must be renewed from time to time so that no injustice is caused to the land owner or the Bait ul-Mal (State Treasury).

What has been mentioned in the speech of ’Umar b. al-Khattab in his discussion with those who differed with him regarding the matter of dividing the land of Iraq, Ash-Sham and Egypt clearly indicates the expenditure of the Kharaj. In this discussions the following saying has been reported: ‘If I had divided it, since then nothing would have remained for those coming after you. How is it possible that Muslims coming after you will find that the land has been divided and inherited through the fathers and owned? What kind of opinion is this? What will fill the frontiers? What will be for the children and widows of this country, and for others from the land of Ash- Sham and Iraq?” His saying to the Ansar whom he consulted was: “I took the view that I should keep the land in the hands of its disbeliever and set down a Kharaj on it and impose Jizya on their necks which they will give. So it will be Fa’i for the Muslims, for the fighters and the offspring and those who come after them. Do you see these frontiers which must have men who will live in. Do you not see these great cities; Ash-Sham, Al-jazeera, Kufa, Basra and Egypt. They have to be manned with armies and grant these armies enough provisions. So who will give those people that if the land and disbelievers are divided up? He said after reciting the verses of Fa’i and he recited the Ayah: ‘And those who came after them.’ This Ayah encompases all the Muslims. There will not be a single person from the Muslims who will not have a right in this wealth. If Allah (swt) gave me more time to live, every Muslim would receive his right, to the point that the shepherd grazing in Hemyer will have his share, though he did not do effort in that.”.

All of this is explicit in that Kharaj is a right of all the Muslims. It is spent on all the departments in the state, from which the salary of the employees, soldiers and grants will be paid. From this wealth the armies will be prepared and weapons will be made ready. It will be spent on the widows, needy and the interests of the people and by which, their affairs will be looked after. The Khalifah will administer it according to his opinion and Ijtihad in terms of that which is good and right for Islam and the Muslims.