The khums tax among The Shiites

One of the most important features of the Shiite Islamic economy is the khums tax* that is to be paid by all followers of this sect. The khums, as a financial legislation, has been mentioned only one time in the Holy Quran in verse 41 of sura Anfal ("the spoils"). The whole sura was revealed after the key battle of Badr, the first battle led by Prophet Muhammad against the Quraishi idol-worshipping opponents that resulted in a decisive victory for Muslims. After the battle Muslims took spoils and money from their enemies and were about to decide how how to divide them up when disagreement arose. According to Islamic jurisprudence, there is nothing in the sura that talks about imposing a financial tax of khums on all economic activities of Muslims or to surrender the fifth of their income, as most of the Shi ite clergy are now trying to argue.
Historically speaking, neither Prophet Muhammad nor any of the twelve imams had imposed a khums tax on the revenues of Muslims and their money. Such a tax had not even been imposed on the revenues of disbelievers or other peaceful groups.
Today the Shi ite law distinguishes between the khums money and the zakat money imposed on Muslims in general. zakat is considered to be a tax that should be paid to the Islamic government and the khums should be divided into two lots: the first lot is the right of the disappeared imam and should be paid to the knowledgeable Shi ite "source of emulation" or to his agents and the other lot should be paid to the poorest of the Hashemites (the prophet s family).
Shi ite Muslims and the khums
As mentioned before, the Shi ite sect emerged as a political opposition group political structure after the death of Prophet Muhammad. This sect disagreed with other Muslim groups on one of the most important political issues, the leadership of the community. This disagreement later on took other forms and was reflected in religious practices and norms as well as various social aspects.
In order to preserve their survival as a political group the Shi ites needed more economic resources than could be obtained by the official political system through legitimate economic taxes in the form of zakat money. zakat, often mentioned and stressed in the Quran was and is usually set at an annual rate 2.5% on a certain set of savings according to a certain nisab (limit). Thus, the khums was levied by the Shi ite leaders.
The khums, according to this perspective, is similar to economic financing of a group or a political organization opposing the existing (Sunni) political regime and is not merely a religious duty. The Shi ite scholars and their leaders consider these political regimes to have illegitimately taken over the leadership of the Muslim community and that it is the duty of the Shi ites to follow and to obey those invested with command (wali al-amr), the religious scholars and the "sources of emulation", and not to follow the existing political regimes.
As a social structure, the Shi ite society seems like an active and organized society that possesses the bases of a well-established organizational structure. This is due to the exceptional efforts of the Shi ite religious leaders and scholars. On a theoretical level, and according to modern Shi ite jurisprudence, there are two groups of people: the muqalidun (blind followers), i.e. the public who lack the religious knowledge, and the maraji al-taqlid (sources of emulation), the key Shi ite scholars who should be followed and obeyed in earthly issues. The muqalidun can choose among these scholars whom they want to follow. They should choose one to become their reference and then follow him in religious practices and earthly issues such as marriage, divorce and financial dealings. This is the first pillar of the legal structure established during the institutionalization of Shi ite civil society.
The other pillar is the involuntary tax of very high nature levied with the purpose of preserving the existence and activities of this Shi ite civil society and to keep it protected from the authoritarian (in most cases) state influence. The sihm al-imam (the share of the Imam) is the tax most preferred by Shi ite religious figures as it represents the share of the disappeared Imam. It is one of the most vital sources of income for the Shi ite religious figures. The other source is the khums which is paid to most of the mujtahidun al-sadat (descedents of the Prophet s family) - recognizable by the black turbans - or those who maintain the heritage of the family as shaykhs - those usually wear the white turban.
The impact of the khums on the social structure of the Shi ites
The large khums money amounts are the bases of the social status of the Shi ite religious leaders even though not all Shi ites pay the khums money levied on them through legal opinion (fatwa) and the letters of scholars. Inside the hawza (Shi ite theological seminary) itself distinction is made according to this criteria. Hawza students usually go to the religious "source of emulation" who has the largest financial assets, which are usually collected from the khums money paid by the muqalidun. The size and availability of these assets depend on the religious commitment of the followers of the different Shi ite different. This has made the amount of wealth owned by a religious figure an indicator of the number of his followers and his muqalidun.
Conflicts and competition between the Shi ite religious leaders over financial support was one of the reasons for disagreement on the type of wilayah (guardianship) over those in need of it - absolute or not? For this reason two schools of thought have emerged in Shi ite jurisprudence to specify the limit of the wilayah or the extent of guardianship of the religious "source of emulation" over his followers. The first school of thought interprets the wilayah as absolute guardianship over followers, which could include requesting from those followers to give away their lives or their possessions and which gives the guardian the right to interfere in the different aspects of his followers lives. The representatives of this school of thought are Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr and Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr in Iraq and Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran. The second school of thought interprets the wilayah as being limited to the management of the khums and zakat money, and the rights of orphans. The most prominent followers of this school in Iraq are Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei and his student Ali al-Sistani and in Iran Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
In this way the khums money has been transformed from a tool to oppose regime authoritarianism into a tool to establish one and from a material base to build an imaginary state into a tool to support, finance and build different religious and social institutions and to strengthen the authority of different religious "sources of emulation".
With the increase in resources of the jurists and leaders attained from the khums money, their institutions were transformed into institutions parallel to those of the state on the social and economic levels in countries where Shi ites live, and especially in Iraq and in Iran (as is the case of the big Khoei financial institution). The budgets of some of the religious leaders based on their income from khums money exceed the budgets of third world countries. However, since there are never declared, there is no transparency.
The issue of the khums money will continue to be a sensitive and critical topic especially in relation with the major issues affecting the lives of individuals as long as it continues to raise in-depth questions on the foundations of the economic resources of religious institutions which have their great impact on the current social structure of Iraq.
Shi ites believe that after the death of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, the leadership of the Islamic state (imamah) should have been passed down to the Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of the prophet and his son-in-law and then to Ali s children. There are various schools of Shiite thought but the majority of the Iraqi Shi ites today are followers of the Twelver school, following the instructions of the twelve imams, the sons and grandsons of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and consider them the only legitimate rulers after the Prophet Muhammad.
The era of the twelve imams, according to Shi ites, starts with Ali ibn Abi Talib who died in 661 and ends with Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Askari (also called "the Mahdi" [redeemer]) who, according to the 12er Shi ites, did not die in 873 in one of the cellars of Samarra but instead "disappeared" and went into occultation. The belief is that this Imam is still hiding will one day appear and fill the earth with justice and righteousness after it has been filled with injustice and grievance. According to Shi ites, those who are running the affairs of Muslims on behalf of the Mahdi are categorized according a historic order at whose top are his ambassadors and his agents who are currently represented by the Shiite religious "sources of emulation" (marja al-taqlid) currently organized according to well-defined positions, religious and social status order. Prominent Shi ite members have great authority, notably in Iran and Iraq and to a lesser extent in Lebanon, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
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* Annual religious tax of one-fifth of a person s income, to be spent on the Prophet s family and the poor. (الخُمسْ)

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