Are taxes permissible? And what is the criterion for the independent public interest?

Abu Ishaq: Question, O our Shaykh, are taxes lawful, given that I pay zakah?

The Shaykh : Taxes are taxes (mukus), and they are among the things that are not permissible in Islam. Imposing taxes is a good example for understanding the rule of independent public interests (masalih mursalah), and when an event becomes an independent public interest that is permissible to adopt and adhere to.
The best I have read on this occasion is a statement by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, in which he affirms the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): ... . Here, he details in detail what may occur after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in terms of events, and that it is not possible to say about all of them that they are an innovation of misguidance, but rather it is necessary to distinguish among them; this distinction is very excellent. He says, "What is innovated after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is looked at: if the motive for that innovation, the cause for it, was present in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) but he did not legislate it for the people, then it is not permissible for us to adopt that event as a means to achieve a Sharia objective; because if it were prescribed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would have legislated it." As is not hidden from the known evidence that the Sharia is complete and there is no need for innovations ... with it; but if the event that occurred achieves an independent public interest, but the cause for its innovation was not present in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), here he says we look: if the motive for innovating this event that achieves an independent public interest is the Muslims' negligence in an aspect of the Sharia in its application, and they established this innovation and made it a means to achieve that goal for which the Wise Lawgiver has established prescribed means, then when the Muslims neglected it, that public interest was not realized, so they created an alternative to those prescribed means; here he says this is misguidance and it is not permissible to adhere to it, and it falls under the generality of the previous hadith . "But if the event occurred and the cause was not present in his time (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Muslims' negligence was not the reason for innovating this event to achieve an independent public interest; then it is permissible to adopt it because it achieves a Sharia objective without contradicting what preceded of the two types: the first type where the cause was present in the time of the Messenger and the Messenger did not legislate it, so this is a contradiction; or the cause was found after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) but the reason is the Muslims' negligence; as for the third type, if neither of these is the case and it achieves an independent public interest, then it is permissible to adopt it to achieve the interests of the Muslims. If we know this distinction, we can take the answer regarding the ruling of taxes in Islam. There is no doubt that these taxes that are imposed aim to achieve interests for the nation, with some leniency in expression; because much of these taxes is spent on what harms the nation, or at least on what involves extravagance and wasting money and the like. So we say that these taxes were not legislated or codified by those who imposed them on Muslim peoples except when they turned away from the legislations that the Wise Lawgiver established in Islam, which are the cause for accumulating money in the treasury of the Muslim state. When the rulers turned away from these prescribed means, the houses of money were emptied of money, so what did they do? They legislated from themselves those taxes; so they are taxes (mukus) and they are not permissible. Therefore, he distinguishes specifically regarding taxes; Imam al-Shatibi (may Allah have mercy on him) distinguishes in his great book "Al-I'tisam," distinguishing the speech well regarding these taxes, saying: "It is permissible for the Muslim ruler to impose taxes on the Muslim people to solve an emergency problem that the money in the house of the Muslims is not sufficient to solve. In that case, it is permissible for the ruling governor to impose a levy from himself and by his ijtihad to eliminate the emergency problem. When the problem is gone, these taxes are gone ... and this is if no harm to Islam results from it due to the evader." I say, for example, a Muslim may evade his tax, for example, he may smuggle goods to the state that imposes customs duties; if he is discovered, he is slandered, and his beard and religion are slandered, and so on. If such harm does not result from it, it is permissible; because he is getting rid of injustice, so it is permissible, but with this restriction and this condition.


The questioner : For example, does this evasion necessitate paying bribes or the like? Does this question require that this evasion involves, for example, paying bribes or the like to some people so that they remove the greater injustice from him? He pays a small amount to remove the greater injustice from him. What is your ruling on that?

The Shaykh : By Allah, bribes in this form are feared to accustom these employees to these taxes with another calamity, which is bribery; and therefore, he did not consider it permissible.
Abu Ishaq: But we had a shop, O our Shaykh, and in two years, taxes of twelve thousand pounds came upon us, while its profits do not reach half. So I can manage to pay one hundred or two hundred pounds, meaning paying the greater injustice with the lesser injustice... Is this permissible?The Shaykh : We say this is paying the greater evil with the lesser, but it must be considered what I mentioned earlier: not revealing the matter, so that it does not affect the religion and Islam and the like.
Abu Ishaq: But as long as it is in secret, it is permissible.

The Shaykh : As for between him and his Lord, it is permissible.