economic thought of the rightly guided caliphs 103The Economic Thought of the Second Caliph Umar
Umar’s policies were a reflection of his own mind. They sometimes
coincided with the policies of the Prophet and Abù-Bakr while, at
other times, they deviated from those policies quite notably. But the
difference was a difference of opinion not a diversion of principles.
The spirit of Islam as a religion and an economic system was always
observed. Umar’s economic thinking can be explored as follows:
The Ownership of Economic Resources
The most notable example of the novelty in Umar’s economic think-
ing is demonstrated in his attitude towards the ownership of land as
a factor of production. After the Islamic conquests, the majority of
Muslims advocated that, in accordance with the rules of the Sharì"ah,
the conquered land of Iraq and Syria should be distributed among
the warriors. Umar disagreed. He was of the opinion that the land
should be kept in the hands of the state, or nationalised, and a tax
would be imposed on the original owners, from which Muslims would
be paid stipends. To understand the dimension of this problem, and
Caliph Umar’s approach to solving it, we should look into the system
of dividing the spoils of war among the warriors as stated in the
Qur"àn and the Sunnah. We recall that spoils of war are of three
types: Anfàl, Ghanìmah and Fai". The Qur"àn states different rules
regarding the allocations of these types of spoils to Muslims. As we
saw previously, about Anfàlthe first verse of Chapter 8 of the Qur"àn
states, “They ask you about Anfàl. Say, ‘the Anfàlbelongs to God
and His Messenger’. Therefore, have fear of God and end your dis-
putes. Obey God and His Messenger if you are true believers”. The
verse was revealed after the battle of Badr, the first battle between
Muslims and Makkahns in which 300 Muslims achieved a complete
victory over 1000 Makkahns in 624 A.C. Muslims, reports say, dis-
puted over the spoils of the battle and as a punishment for such
behaviour all the spoils were put, by Revelation, under the disposal
of the Prophet who distributed them among Muslims who either
participated in the battle or otherwise, (Màwardì). The allocation of
Ghanìmah, which was different from that of Anfàl, was ordained as
in the Qur"àn, “Know that to God, His Messenger, the Messenger’s
kinsfolk, the orphans, the needy, and the wayfarers, shall belong one
fifth of your spoils: if you truly believe in God and what We revealed
to Our servant on the day of victory, the day when the two armies