Accountability formula of Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz
Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz is the famous leader of the Banu Umayyad family and the caliphs of Islam who are rulers with exemplary character. He was a prominent religious scholar, muhaddith and righteous saint. His father Abd al-Aziz was governor of Egypt for many years and he himself was governor of Hejaz before becoming caliph. Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz was the nephew and son-in-law of the then caliph Abdul Mulk bin Marwan and was one of the most prominent members of the royal family. But satisfied. Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz's throne was Damascus and he was the sole ruler of the entire Islamic world during his time. His biographer writes that when the royal family pledged allegiance to the caliphate at the hands of Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz after the death of Caliph Sulaiman bin Abdul Mulk, the first thing he did was to address the public in the Jama Masjid of Damascus. He said that the choice of the Khalifa is the right of the people and they do not consider themselves qualified for this position, therefore they return their right to the people to choose whoever they want as their ruler instead of them. But the people unanimously decided in favor of him and said that no caliph would be accepted without him.
The first problem that Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz faced after assuming the caliphate was that more or less eighty percent of Baitul Mal (national treasury) was in the custody of the royal family and its approved persons and the national The economy was suffering from depression. Therefore, they had to take back the wealth and assets of Baitul-Mal from the people who were illegally occupying them. Therefore, he gave him the first number in his priorities and started this mission as soon as he assumed the caliphate. The practical approach he adopted for this purpose can be divided into three parts or points and he started implementing all three simultaneously.
👉 (1) First of all, he completely changed his personal life and abandoned the affairs of comfort and luxury to which he had become accustomed during the princely period. It is said in the traditions that he was one of the most well-dressed people of his time, wearing the finest clothes and no garment could fit his body more than once. Even at one time when he was governor of Madinah, his personal belongings were loaded on thirty camels to Madinah from Damascus, and despite his knowledge and piety, his contemporaries criticized his sophistication and luxury. used to. But as soon as he assumed the caliphate, his mood changed completely. After the public pledge of allegiance to the Khilafat, while leaving the Jama Masjid, he was presented with a troop of royal horses for riding, but he turned them away and said that a mule is enough for me to ride. He was so strict on himself and his family members in this matter that the memory of his grandfather Hazrat Umar bin Al-Khattab (RA) was refreshed once again and that is why he is remembered as "Umar the Second". .
👉(2) The second thing he did was that he put all the weight of the collections on the big people and started it with himself. He used to have a garden of Fadak which was owned by Baitul-Mal, first he returned that garden to Baitul-Mal. His wife Fatima bint Abdul Mulk had a precious necklace which was given to her by her father Khalifa Abdul Mulk bin Marwan on the occasion of her marriage. He then called a meeting of the Caliphate family and asked them that the estates and donations given to them by some of the former Caliphs were the property of Baitul Mal and they had no right over them, so they should return them. . The leading men of the family protested against this, and most of all Hisham bin Abd al-Mulk insisted that he should not interfere in the affairs of the past, that he should deal with the problems of his caliphate and not tamper with the decisions of the previous caliphs. In response to this, Hazrat Omar bin Abdul Aziz said two things. One is that he asked Hisham bin Abdul Mulk that if he had two documents, one from his father Abdul Mulk bin Marwan and the other from Hazrat Muawiya, the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, which document would he prefer? will give Hisham replied that he would prefer Hazrat Muawiyah's document because it was earlier. Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz said that he has an earlier document which is the Book of Allah, so he prefers to act on it. Secondly, he discovered that if a person dies and one or two powerful people from among his descendants seize the entire property and deprive the remaining heirs, and at some point you get the power to What would you do if you could do justice between? Hisham replied that I will take back the property from the usurpers and distribute it among all the heirs according to the rules. Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz said that I have also started doing the same thing. So the family of the caliphate had to succumb to their inflexible attitude and all the wealth and assets of Baitul-Mal returned to the national treasury within two weeks.
👉 (3) The third issue Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz did was that he adopted a lenient attitude towards the common people and he withdrew many harsh measures taken by the previous rulers. Abolished many taxes, simplified the process of collecting taxes from the people, took notice of the abuses committed on non-Muslims in particular and provided them with many facilities. The result was that people willingly paid their dues and the financial condition of Baitul-Mal became more and more stable. In this regard, Hazrat Omar bin Abdul Aziz himself once said that in the province of Iraq, there was a lot of strictness in collecting taxes from the people during the period of Hajjaj bin Yusuf and many illegal taxes were also imposed, despite this, the center collected from Iraq. The amount never exceeded two million and eighty million dirhams, but I simplified the system of collection and abolished many taxes, thanks to which the amount received from Iraq by the center reached twelve million dirhams annually during my tenure. has reached
Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz ruled only for two and a half years, but thanks to his actions and methods, in such a short period of time, not only Baitul-Mal was stabilized and its assets were returned, but also its income increased enormously. The effects of prosperity reached the people. The traditions of history tell us that during this period, the zakat payers used to go around in the markets with their zakat money and make noises that if someone deserves it, he should receive zakat from them so that they would be discharged from their responsibilities, but no one in the society is a zakat collector. It was not deserved
Written by: Hazrat Maulana Zahidal Rashdi Sahib
(Daily Insaf, December 26, 2022)
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