The Sword of Ambition. 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi
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God be pleased with him, who addressed the people, saying, “All you Muslims! God have mercy on you! Word reached me that a group of polytheists, who had entered Islam and secured employment in its administration, had gone back to their old religion. In their ignorance of God they imagined that He was heedless of what they had done when they obeyed the Devil and followed after him. Therefore I dispatched Khālid ibn al-Walīd and commanded him to fight them. He did so, and forbad their employment in the Muslims’ administration. For I do not approve of the employment of a polytheist in the administrative affairs of the Muslims.”12
THE FIFTH SECTION: THE EXAMPLE OF IMAM ʿUMAR IBN AL-KHAṬṬāB
1.5.1
Here I would tell how when one of the Emigrants came before ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, God be pleased with him, with wealth from al-Baḥrayn, the caliph ascended the pulpit. He praised and extolled God, asked his blessing upon Muḥammad his Prophet, God bless and keep him, and said, “All you Muslims! God have mercy on you! A great sum has come to us. If you wish, we shall measure it out by volume, or by weight if you prefer that, or we could count it out.” Then a man stood up and said, “Commander of the Believers, we have observed that the Persian foreigners make records in registers.” Upon hearing this, ʿUmar commanded that registers be made for the various administrative regions. He also wrote to his agents not to employ any infidel, whether Jew or Christian.13
1.5.2
Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī wrote the following lines to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, God be pleased with him, in the year 17 of the Emigration [ca. AD 638]: “Our tax receipts have increased mightily, and no one is able to count them but the Persian foreigners.” By this last phrase he meant the dhimmis, for the Muslims would impose the poll tax upon the people in the lands they conquered. Abū Mūsā asked ʿUmar for his view on the matter. ʿUmar wrote to him, “Do not embroil your religion in this affair, and do not hand over to your enemies in religion that which God has forbidden them. Do not entrust your property to them, but instead learn to write, for writing is the glory of men.”14 ʿUmar’s central message here, God be pleased with him, is that Muslims should apply themselves to every virtuous pursuit, master it, gather its disparate arts, and make manifest its hidden secrets. For all virtues are most properly expressed and most commendable in Muslims; it is from Muslims that they should be derived and among them that they should be found. This being the case, there is no need whatsoever for non-Muslims in any task, particularly in that loftiest of crafts and noblest of ranks: the secretarial art.
1.5.3
It was in fact ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, God be pleased with him, who began the practice of dating according to the Calendar of the Emigration. Someone asked him, “How should we calculate dates?” At that time, the Arabs calculated from the Year of the Elephant [ca. 570]. ʿUmar, God be pleased with him, said, “Calculate from the Emigration, for it is the divide between Truth and Falsehood.” Those present asked, “With what month should we begin?” One of the people said, “With the month of Ramadan, in which the Qurʾan was revealed.” But ʿUmar said, “Nay, rather with the month of Muharram, for it is the month in which the people return from their Pilgrimage.”15
1.5.4
ʿUmar wrote to his agents, “If anyone has a secretary who is an unbeliever, let him not empower him, include him, trust him, have recourse to his opinion, sit with him, or indeed employ him at all. For the Messenger of God, God bless and keep him, did not command anyone to employ unbelievers; neither he nor his caliph after him gave anyone permission to do so. This is my edict, commanding what the Messenger of God, God bless and keep him, commanded, and forbidding what he forbad. Therefore let me be informed how he has instructed his subordinates in this matter, and let him beware lest they violate and transgress it.”16
1.5.5
Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān wrote the following letter to ʿUmar, God be pleased with him: “O Commander of the Believers, there is a Christian secretary in my district without whom we are unable to collect the land tax. Yet I have been loath to employ him without your command.” ʿUmar, God be pleased with him, wrote to him, “God save us both! I have read your letter concerning the matter of the Christian. Here is the reply: Consider the Christian dead. Farewell.”17
1.5.6
Abū Mūsā l-Ashʿarī came to ʿUmar in the Mosque of the Messenger of God, God bless and keep him, greeted him, and sat down. After sitting for a moment, he said, “Please permit my secretary to come in, Commander of the Believers.” ʿUmar said, “What prevented him from coming in with you? Is he ritually impure?” “He is a Christian,” Abū Mūsā replied. Then ʿUmar’s expression changed and he said, “Do you appoint over the Muslims a dhimmi secretary, who deems it lawful for himself to spill Muslim blood and take Muslim property? Could you not have appointed a pious Muslim, one who commands justice and righteous deeds?” Abū Mūsā said, “His secretarial skills belong to me, but he is responsible for his own evil deeds.”18 ʿUmar replied, “You must not include him when God has excluded him, uphold him when God has humbled him, honor him when God has reviled him, or love him when God has declared his hatred for him. In this you must act according to what God, be He glorified, has said: «And whom God abases, there is none to honor him».”19
1.5.7
ʿUmar also wrote to Abū Hurayrah, “The people have an aversion to their rulers. I beseech God lest it be directed at us.” Continuing, he offered him wise counsel in the following words: “Exclude the polytheists, condemn their deeds, and seek not the aid of an unbeliever in any of the Muslims’ affairs.”
In conclusion, there is no indication in the sources that any unbeliever was hired for any job in the time of the Prophet, God bless and keep him, or that of Abū Bakr, or that of ʿUmar, or that of ʿUthmān, or that of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, God be pleased with all of them.20
THE SIXTH SECTION: THE EXAMPLE OF ʿABD AL-MALIK IBN MARWĀN
1.6.1
Here I would tell of what befell a certain Christian. Sarjūn ibn Manṣūr the Christian had charge of the financial office of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. The caliph gave him a command, but he carried it out in a dishonest manner. When news of this reached ʿAbd al-Malik, he was deeply troubled. He confided this to Abū Thābit Sulaymān ibn Quḍāʿah, who had charge of the offices of the chancery and the seal. Abū Thābit said to him, “If the Commander of the Believers seeks a virtuous Muslim, then the man for the job is Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Anṣārī.”
At the very moment they were engaged in this discussion, it so happened that a petition arrived on which some poetry was written. This is what it said:
Sons of Umayyah! Stop the tongues of these uncircumcised men,
following the example of the Messenger of God and the caliphs.
Favor not the Greeks as secretaries of your state,
for it will only bring enmity and wrong.
Your clan is a light unto Guidance itself, by which it casts light;
by you alone it now runs upon its course.21
Then ʿAbd al-Malik commanded the immediate dismissal of the Christian and appointed Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Anṣārī to replace him. In those days, Greek was used in the financial administration of Syria; al-Anṣārī, however, changed it over to Arabic. From that time forth, Muslims were employed instead of Christians. This was in the year 78 of the Emigration [697–98].22
THE SEVENTH SECTION: THE DEEDS OF AL-ḤAJJĀJ
1.7.1
When al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf took charge in Iraq, there were two offices there. One was in Arabic—this was the one that had been established by the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, God be pleased with him—and the other was in Persian. The official in charge of the Persian office was Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. One day he said to al-Ḥajjāj,