“The government takes not only the tax but also part of personal property as much as it needs free and not to be returned. It spends it on general needs of the society.”
Jewdet Pasha, who put Allâhu ta’âlâ’s commands into the form of law-articles, says in the 95th article of his Majalla, “One cannot command anybody to use others’ property.” For example, one cannot command anybody to give a certain person’s property to another person. It is written on its 96th article and in ad-Durr al-mukhtâr, “A person’s property cannot be used without his permission.” Property is something which one possesses. A hadîth says, “If a Muslim’s property is taken without his consent, it will not be halâl.” This hadîth sherîf is written in the book Kunûz ad-daqâ’iq by Imâm al-Manâwî, in Musnad by Imâm Ahmad and in Sunan by Abû Dâwûd. This means that the state cannot take something illegitimately or more than the legitimate amount of something from the people. It cannot burden the people with illegitimate taxes, either. If it does, this will be usurpation and cruelty; it will have to return the property which it has taken by force and without a hearty consent, to their owners. It is peculiar to socialist countries for the government to commandeer or to usurp the people’s property. There cannot be a socialistic government in Islam. In explaining the ninety-eighth article of Majalla, Haji Reshîd Pasha says that ishtirâk amwâl (collective ownership, communism) is never permissible in Islam. Nor is there a capitalistic system in Islam. The fard of zakât eradicates these two homes of cruelty which gnaw at humanity. There is social justice in Islam. Everybody gets the reward of his labour and of the sweat of his brow. Nobody casts covetous eyes on others’ possessions. Neither the government nor the rulers may exploit the people. They cannot use the money of Bayt al-mâl, the treasury of the State, for their own pleasures.
The government carries out the duties which Islam commands and the services which the people need. It finances them by means of the public treasury called Bayt al-mâl. It is not permissible to take it from the people by force. The treasury of Islamic state is Bayt al-mâl, and the revenue of the state is the revenue of the Bayt al-mâl. The state should not exhaust the sources of Bayt al-mâl or waste them or spend them on illegitimate places. If the revenue of Bayt al-mâl does not suffice
for jihâd and for legitimate services, it will be permissible for it to borrow money justfully from the people. But, afterwards, it has to be paid back, unless the lenders agree to a waiver. If it does not run the sources of Bayt al-mâl and if it does not spend Bayt al-mâl on legitimate places, it will have done cruelty. There is extensive information on this subject in the fifth volume of ad-Durr al-mukhtâr. If the state provides sources of revenue for the Bayt al-mâl and uses them within the borders of legitimacy (drawn by Islam), it will suffice for all its duties and it will not have to ask for any help
from the people.
In explaining the thirty-third article of Majalla, Haji Reshîd Pasha says that Islam does not permit to meddle with the property of anybody. Even a person who is in urgent need cannot encroach on others’ rights. It has been permitted for a hungry person to eat someone else’s bread without his permission, yet he has to pay for it later. His hunger or being in the danger of death does not cause someone else to lose his rights on his property. Even the property taken in case of urgent need from someone else must be paid for. That the necessities cause the forbidden things to be done cannot cause anybody to lose his right.
It is written in the book Barîqa that the word ‘Muslims’ in the hadîth, “Allâhu ta’âlâ accepts the thing which Muslims consider to be good,” means ‘Muslims who are profound ’ulamâ’, that is, mujtahids’. Things incompatible with what these scholars have reported are never acceptable.
In the explanation of the fifty-eighth article, he says that with the command of the government someone’s property may be bought for its value and added to (a newly constructed) road. But unless its cost is paid it cannot be expropriated from him. When the government commands, he can be forced to sell it, but it cannot be taken without paying the money.
Communism is not something new. The lexicon Burhân-i qâti’ quotes Majdak, the leading figure of the religion of fire-worshippers (Magianism, Zoroastrianism) who lived in the times of Persian Shah Kubad, as having said:
“Fire will be worshipped. Eveything is everybody’s property. It is normal to exchange wives. The possessions and ways of life of all people are equal. Everybody lives in society and cannot have personal property. All people are equal and they are partners in everything. If someone asks someone else to give him his wives, he should give them. The rich should share their property with the poor and meet their need.”
Because that so-called religion suited the purposes of lazy people, vagabonds and especially womanizers, it spread rapidly. Kubad Shah, too, was an evil person given to debaucheries. He also admitted communism. When his son Nûshirvân came into power, he put base Majdak and his eighty thousand men to the sword and exterminated the nuisance of communism. The justice of Nûshirvân Shah is praised in a hadîth-i-sherîf. It is obvious that those who prepared the communistic revolution in Russia in 1917 and caused thousands of citizens to slaughter one another and a big nation to be enslaved by a small savage minority followed the path of the idiots annihilated by Nûshirvân Shah.
The duty of the Islamic state is to protect the property, life and chastity of the people, to get back the rights of the oppressed from the cruel. The government can never violate the property, life and chastity of the people.