84 chapter two
writing in what became known as the institution of Œisbah, or pub-
lic accountability.
Third: State Finance
The state revenue and expenditure have developed significantly dur-
ing the history of Islam. During the life of the Prophet the state rev-
enue was confined to mainly five Fai", one-fifth of the spoils of war,
Zakàh, Jizyah, and private donations. Apart from the private dona-
tions, which were encouraged, the other types of revenue were
specified in the Qur"àn as well as the manner of spending them.
Furthermore, when there was confusion as to the definition of some
type of these revenues, hence their expenditure allocation, this was
also explained by Qur"ànic verses. Throughout the Islamic history,
mainly as a result of Islamic conquests, these revenues expanded in
types and size where more types were added to them both by neces-
sity and innovation. We see the beginning of this notably during
the reign of the second caliph Umar (634–644). Further expansion
of conquests led to further expansion of types of revenues and
that became particularly evident after the early caliphate during
the Umayyad and Abbasìd caliphates, as will be examined in due
course.
At this early stage of the Islamic state during the life of the Prophet
state revenues, as stated in the Qur"àn, were as follows:
Fai"and Anfàl
Although the line between the definition of Fai"and spoils of war
is very fine, the difference lies in that Fai"was the spoils of war that
were gained without the toil of actual combat, while spoils of war
were gained from the enemy through actual combat (Qur"àn 59:6–8).
The importance of that fine difference become significant when we
know how each type was distributed among the warriors. Fai"was
to be put in full under the disposal of the Prophet, the head of state,
with no share given to the warrior, while spoils of war was divided
among them after deducting one-fifth to the state.
Anfàl also took the same rule of allocation; all to God and His
messenger, which makes it identical to Fai" in distribution. The
difference between Anfàland Fai"is that while Anfàlresulted from
actual combat Fai" did not. Anfàlwas however an infrequent case
and that was when Muslims disputed over the spoils of the first bat-
tle of Badr in 624 A.C. and as a result, all spoils were put under