How the Jizya is to be Collected and from Whom

The jizya was the annual tax that all Christians and Jews (and some members of other religions) were required to pay to the Muslim government of the region in which they lived. Those who paid the tax were called ahl al-dhimma, “subjugated persons,” and they lived as second-class citizens who were not equal to Muslims under the law.

This is an excerpt from the Kitab al-Kharaj, a treatise written by the judge and scholar Abu Yusuf for the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in the late eighth century. Based on his understanding of fiqh—that is, on his secular legal interpretation of the Quran—Abu Yusuf in this treatise advised the caliph (referred to as “The Commander of the Faithful” in the last paragraph) how he should collect this tax according to sharia (divine law).

Link to the source: How the Jizya is to be Collected