What are the jizya and zakat?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Jizya was a tax imposed on non Muslims in early days of Islam per Quran revelation to prophet Muhammad. The reason of this tax is that non Muslims were not sharing Muslims in defending their lands against the invader. That is why it was imposed on the non Muslims who are subject to participate in the military service but exempted. It is not imposed over women, children, old people, or poor, permanently ill or incapable people.

Answer 2

The jizya tax was a way of singling out and humiliating non-Muslims for their "failure to realize that Islam was correct". In terms of application, each non-Muslim paid a 2.5% per-head poll tax. It was protection money, similar to what one might give to a mobster who runs a neighborhood so that he does not murder your family.

As to non-Muslims not helping Muslims defend against invaders: Aside from the fact that non-Muslims were prohibited from fighting, many non-Muslims, especially Jews in the Muslim world, took on many civic responsibilities that had been abdicated by Muslims who went to fight wars. This is similar to the women who went into the factories in World War II because the "normal" factory workers, the men, went off to fight.

Answer 2

Answer

Jizya was a tax for non-Muslim men who didn't want to enter the army and wanted the Muslims to save him but the condition to pay "men have power to fight in army"

Zakat for Muslim when he get money equevelent to 85 grams of money and pass one year over them pay 2.5%.

Commentary on the Expert Answer by Prioktan918

1. It is not true that Jews in the Arab World lived as second class citizens in the Dhimmi System. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that who hurts any Dhimmi will never smell the Paradise. You may know the story of Judge who looked for a suit claimed by Ali Ibn Abou Taleb that a Jew stolen his war shield. The Judge asked Ali if he has a proof that it is his he said that my sons could witness that it is his. He said their witness could not be accepted and ordered the war shield for the Jew. The Jew admired the Judge and the just in Islam and converted to Islam and gave the war shield to Ali admitting that it is his. However, Aly gave the shield back to the Jew as a present. It is a true event and a Propaganda fake story. There are many other stories about the fairness and justice of Islam religion when dealing with the Dhimmi. They were never treated as second class citizens.
2. The jizya, was not for humiliation of the Dhimmi; who had to pay it; otherwise the Dhimmi would be killed. This Jizya was imposed on non Muslims for being exempted from military service and from financing the Islamic army that defends them. That is why Jizya was not paid for women, children, old people, and/or sick people who can't participate in military service. Also, poor people were exempted from paying it. Currently, this Jizya is merely a historical issue that is no longer valid as non Muslims also participate in military service; as Muslims; to the extent that in Egypt the leader of one of the three Egyptian armies was non Muslim.
3. All Islamic countries were known by the justice and equality among all their citizens; Muslims and non Muslims; to the extent that the Christians in Egypt called Muslims to invade Egypt to relieve them from the tyranny of the Romans. They were only able to practice their rituals openly when the country became under the Muslims control.

Answer 3

The two items, jizya and zakat have to do with money transfers in Islamic Society, but other than that, they are entirely different.

Discussion of Zakat
Zakat is the Muslim equivalent of tithing or almsgiving. It used to be collected mandatorily as a tax by the various Islamic Caliphates and Empires from only their Muslim subjects. Today, it is the religious duty of every Muslim to give to zakat, but such contributions are not legally enforced. In this earlier period, while the state was the collector of the zakat, it would only be a mechanism to transfer wealth, with the final destination being the poor, widowed, and orphaned individuals who most needed the alms. In Sunni Muslim society, the rate of the zakat was set at 2.5% of annual income. In Shiite Muslim society, the rate of the zakat was set at 10% of annual income. Both of these numbers are in accord with Sunni and Shiite jurisprudence.

Discussion of Jizya
The jizya was a poll tax given by the various Islamic Caliphates and Empires that applied exclusively to their non-Muslim subjects such as Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Sikhs, and other minority religions, who as a group were called Dhimmis or Ahl ad-Dimma. It was primarily through taxes on Dhimmis, of which the jizya was one of several, that the Caliphates maintained their treasury. As long as the jizya was paid, these religious minorities could safely live as second-class citizens. Unlike the zakat, the jizya was a tax funnelled directly into state coiffers. Muslims often point out that Dhimmis did not have to serve in the army and so they see this tax as compensation, but they often forget to point out that Dhimmis were actually forbidden from possessing dangerous weapons or serving in the army, so if there was any balancing it was done without the non-Muslims' consent.

The jizya was strongly resented by the Dhimmi who had to pay it, but this resentment did not stem from the actual expense of the tax. That is to say that the rate was not in any way unconscionable and (considering many taxes levied in similar periods) was actually quite trivial. The hatred that the Dhimmi have toward the jizya is that it was not intended solely to gain revenue, but to single out and humiliate non-Muslims for their "failure to realize that Islam was correct" as noted by early Islamic Scholar Ibn Kathir. It was protection money, similar to what one might give to a mobster who runs a neighborhood so that he does not murder your family. This sense among the Dhimmi that the Muslims would only tolerate them as long as they "paid on time" made them angry. Muslim continual failure to recognize this past continues to incense the descendants of and current Dhimmi in Muslim countries today.