Through Force or Faith? — Page 209
Chapter 4 — Interaction with non-Believers 209 the Mirdites, a tribe of Albanian Catholics who occupied the mountains to the north of Scutari, were exempt from taxation on condition of supplying an armed contingent in time of war. (Prof. Thomas. W. Arnold, The Spread of Islam in the World, pp 60–62, Reprint by Goodword Books, New Delhi, India, 2003) ‘Umar ra was so concerned about the welfare of his Non-Muslim subjects that he made a special testament while dying which has the following words; ‘I admonish the next Khalifah to exercise extreme gentleness and kindness when dealing with Non-Muslim subjects; to honour all their contracts: to protect them; to fight their enemies for them; and not to burden them with anything that is beyond their capacity. ’ ( Al-K ā mil Fit-T ā r ī kh, vol. 2) This is the real truth behind the jizya. People who actually paid this tax in the times of Righteous Khulaf a did not object to it because they became eligible for all the benefits and social services by paying a nominal tax for which Muslims had to offer much greater personal and financial sacrifice. It was in the time of ‘Umar ra that Muslims collected this tax from the Christian popu- lation after the conquest of Syria. But shortly thereafter Muslims faced the prospect of war again. The commander of the Muslim army, Abū Ubaida refunded the entire tax to the Christian pop- ulation because he felt that, due to the war, they would be unable to protect their rights and thus are not entitled to keep the tax. ( Kit a b ul-Khar ā j, Ab u Y u suf, pp. 80–82, Fut ū h ul-Buld ā n, p. 146)