Islamic Values

Being methodical During the caliphate of Umar, Abu Hurayrah brought 800,000 dirhams from Abu Musa Ashari to Madinah. After the morning prayer, Umar informed the Muslims about this new intake of revenue. “In all of Islamic history, we have not, till now, received such a sum of money. In my opinion, it should be divided into equal portions and distributed among the people.” When he asked the gathering what they thought, Uthman offered his opinion: “In order to give to everyone, a considerable amount of money will be needed. If people are not counted, it will be impossible to tell who have received their share and who have not. This will result in confusion.” Hearing this, Walid ibn Hisham said, “Commander of the Faithful, when I was in Syria, I saw that the rulers there had compiled registers for this purpose, and had appointed people to maintain them. You might do likewise.” Umar accepted this advice and delegated the task of compiling registers to Aqil ibn Abu Talib, Makhramah ibn Nawfal and Jubayr ibn Mutim. (IBN SA‘D, TABAQAI)