(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - During the Tartar invasion, when Muslims were being attacked and butchered by the Mongols, one of the Muslim leaders at that time, Qutuz, had to raise enough money to be able to resource the battle against the Tartars.
He met with scholars and leaders and told them of his intention to impose taxes, to supply the military and secure enough resources to fight the Tartars.
However, a great scholar at that time, Imam al-Izz ibn Abdis-Salaam, opposed these measures. He issued a famous fatwa, that imposing taxes will not be allowed, except after two conditions had been met:
1) To prepare the army from the treasury department until there is no more money.2)To sell the properties of ministers and leaders and let them have only their swords and horses.
Once they did this and if money was still needed, only then could they impose taxes on the Muslim public. Imam al-Izz ibn Abdis-Salaam’s sense of justice, was such that he could not allow taxes to be imposed on the Muslim public; while military leaders and ministers had fancy rides and huge properties, leaving the public with nothing.
Qutuz, being a just leader himself and enriched in Islamic principles, agreed to implement this fatwa. He began with his own resources. Soon there was more than enough money to fund the military and there was no need to impose any taxes.
Today we are in difficult economical climate. Our leaders are living lavishly, while the tax payer has to work harder than ever to replace the money that was squandered. Student fees have been increased and EMA finished, deeply affecting our next generation. Redundancy is sky high and many people are struggling to pay for basic necessities. The future doesn’t look set to improve significantly.
Despite all this, it does not seem as if anything has changed significantly, when it comes to our leaders’ financial circumstances. Infact, there is even talk of a 1% pay rise. They even got a pay rise last year - let’s just turn a blind eye to the expenses scandal and the economy.
Islam has a lot to offer the world, despite Islamophobes trying to malign its name. But for the well educated and open minded, they can see past the demonisation to the pure, just religion beneath. It is about time the non-Muslim masses decided to find out about Islam for themselves, instead of reading the rubbish in the Murdoch owned press.
Who better to teach them than our Mosques - who need to wake up and open the gates of the Mosques to all. It is about time they started to counter the negative tide of Islamophobia out there. When will our Mosque leaders start becoming more like Imam al-Izz ibn Abdis-Salaam?
End item/ 159