FEUDALISM
Feudalism is a way of production, the distinguishing mark of it being the
existence of a perpetual system of serfdom. It is a system wherein the landlord
or his representative is entitled to receive a fixed share of production and
enjoys certain specific economic rights, carrying with them the privilege to
make their tenants serve them or, instead thereof, receive payments from them in
cash or kind.
A feudal lord or jagirdar is a person who owns vast tracts of land on which
hundred of farmers or cultivators work either for petty wages or for some share
in the produce and so often without any compensation. In this system the whole
of the produce or the lion’s share of the produce goes to the jagirdar who does
not work and lives in ease and luxury and sucks the blood of the poor farm
worker like a parasite. The owner of the big chunk of land is called feudal lord
or landlord or Jagirdar, the land is called estate or Jagir and peasants are
called serfs or tenants.
Introduction
Away from the cities, we come to a different world in countryside of Pakistan,
where you find large tracts of lands owned by rich landlords who literally
enslave the poor workers of his lands through exploitation and fear.
That they(the jews)took riba
Though they were forbidden;
And that they devoured properties
Of people wrongfully.
We have prepared for those
Among them who reject Faith
a grievous punishment.
The same corrupt feudal elite is now running the government and creating the
worst eve conditions in Pakistan, through corruption, abuse of power, nepotism
and criminal acts. Welcome to the evils of feudalism that are impacting every
aspect of our lives and taking our country towards destruction!
Approximately half of Pakistan's GN Product and a major portion of its export
earnings are rooted in the agricultural sector controlled by a few thousand
feudal families, yet they pay hardly any tax while all the other sectors are
loaded with additional taxes and duties in the name of economic reform!
It is disconcerting to note that both the Assembly and the Senate are dominated
by feudal politicians. The feudal mind set, the arrogance, the greed and the
criminal tendency have become the governing principles of these people, and
together these people conspire day in and day out to maintain the status-quo and
retard any move towards economic and social uplifting of the ordinary
Pakistanis.
The fact of the matter is that unless Pakistan is saved from the feudal menace
there is little hope for change for the poor and ordinary citizens of this
country. The feudal mind set is based on principles of greed, arrogance,
exploitation, torture and corruption. Nothing good can come out of anything
which is pure evil and hence until feudalism is rooted out we cannot get rid of
poor governance and corruption. Pakistan badly needs land reforms, there is no
other remedy, this will have to be done or the very existence of our state might
get impacted.
Feudalism in an Islamic state
It should be clear to any Muslim that Feudalism cannot be compatible with Islam.
The very religion that abolished slavery, introduced justice, compassion,
dignity for poor people cannot tolerate a system which is founded on principles
of exploitation and injustice that too, of the worst kind.
Islam does allow private property but when it becomes a source of evil then it
is no longer a legitimate asset. Islam can never tolerate that while the land
owner enjoys all the wealth without working on his lands, those who toil from
dawn to dusk are not even given enough to feed their hunger. Let there be no
illusion as it stands today the Feudalism in Pakistan is totally against Islamic
values and teachings and all those who are party to this form of exploitation
are committing a grave sin and will be held accountable on the day of judgment
where no lame excuses will work.
Let’s remind ourselves of some of the teachings of the Quran that tell us how we
are supposed to deal with fellow beings:
Surat 3, Verse 134
‘Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity or in adversity; who restrain
anger, and pardon (all) men, for Allah loves those who do good.
Surat 55, Verse 9
‘So establish weight with justice and do not fall short in the balance’.
Surat 63, Verse 9
O you who believe! Let not your riches or your children divert you from the
remembrance of Allah. If any act thus, the loss is their own.
Surat 83, Verse 1-6
‘ Woe to those that deal in fraud, those who, when they have to receive by
measure from men, exact full measure, but when they have to give by measure or
weight to men, give less than due. Do they not think that they will be raised
again (called to account) on a mighty day, A day when (all) mankind will stand
before the lord of the Worlds?’
Surat 92. Verse 8-11
‘But he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient, and gives the
lie to the Best, We will indeed make smooth for him the path to misery; Nor will
his wealth profit him when he falls headlong (into the Pit).(9)
Surat 102,Verse 1-4
‘ The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you
(from the more serious things). Until you visit the graves. But nay, you soon
shall know (the reality). Again, you soon shall know!(10)
Although Islam recognizes the right of an individual to own land, but it does
not favor landlord ism or feudalism. In fact, Islam condemns all oppressive,
tyrannical and reactionary institutions which lead to suppression of basic human
rights such as right to equality, right to liberty and right to basic human
needs. How Islam a religion of peace, equality and brotherhood, can tolerate
such an undemocratic and tyrannical institution like feudalism which renders
millions of humans to the status of serfs and slaves?
Those who contend that feudalism or landlord ism exists in Islam mainly give two
arguments in the favor of their view: firstly that the Holy Prophet as well as
his successors granted lands to the people, and secondly that the system of
cultivation of land through tenants on the basis of produce-sharing or cash-rent
remained in vogue during their times. But both these argument hardly carry any
force if examined impartially and dispassionately. No doubt the Holy Prophet
allotted some tracts of land to his companions but such allotments were made in
small tracts of land only to those needy persons among the Muhajirin and Ansars,
who had no possessions and no source of income, just to enable them to earn
their livelihood. These small land owners generally cultivated their land
themselves. Those who could not cultivate their lands themselves due to some
reason, they got it cultivated through tenants on crop-sharing basis or cash
rent. But when the system of cultivation discouraged his companions to do so. He
enjoined upon them to cultivate their land themselves or to give it gratis to
their brothers in faith or to leave it fallow rather than giving it on hire. As
we have stated earlier, caliph Umar placed all the lands of conquered countries
like Iraq, Syria and Egypt under state ownership and refused to allot the same
to individuals who participated in the conquest thereof despite the pressure of
some influential companions. So the lands of these countries remained in the
control of the peasants and farmers who paid Kharaj in kind or in cash to the
state. This land tenure system was continued during the period of Usman and Ali.
So the system of Jagirdari was never allowed to take its roots during the reign
of the Prophet and the pious caliphs.(11)
For the following reasons, I believe, the system of Jagirdari is incompatible
with the teachings of Islam and so it cannot be allowed to exist in an Islamic
state:
1. Feudalism or Jagirdari system is the most exploitive, the most oppressive and
the most retrogressive system that has ever lived in the history of man on
earth. How a humanitarian religion like Islam which believes in justice,
fairness and equity can tolerate this system?
2. Economically feudalism is even worse and more exploitive than usury because a
feudal lord lives on the blood of his farm workers treating them as chattel and
paying them little or insignificant compensation while the usurer does not
maltreat his debtor as long as he regularly gets his usury. Usury, as we have
already studied, has not only been prohibited by Islam but has also been
declared by its revealed book as equivalent to war against God and God’s
Messenger.
3. Islam provides all the fundamental human rights to its followers including
right to equality; right to liberty; right to protection of person, honor and
property; right to basic needs; right to freedom of profession or vocation and
right to rest and leisure. But all these rights are denied to farm workers and
tenants by the feudal system. This system makes them serfs and slaves having no
rights.
4. In feudal system, the landlords own thousands of hectares of land without any
limit or ceiling. Vast tracts of lands are placed in the possession of few
jagirdars while majority of the people have no lands and are thus forced to work
on the lands of these jagirdars. Such a tyrannical and unjust system is alien to
Islam which believes in equitable and fair distribution of wealth and economic
resources. As stated earlier, if a landowner colonies some land or is granted
some land by the state and does not put it to use for a period of three years,
he loses his ownership rights according to Islamic system. Similarly, state can
make law prohibiting purchase of land by certain persons in certain areas as was
done by Caliph Umar who prohibited the Arabs to purchase lands in the conquered
countries. Thus, in this situation, one cannot be a jagirdar in an Islamic state
as all the means of acquiring of land are placed under the control of the
Islamic state which exercises its powers judiciously so as to keep the
distribution of land among its citizens fair and equitable.
5. We have gone through the Ahadith of the Prophet of Islam and we know that the
Prophet not only discouraged Muzara’a or tenancy system but also forbade his
companion like Abu Rafaa, whose family was a big landowner family of Madina in
those days, to indulge in this practice.
The Prophet advised those who owned lands to cultivate their lands themselves or
to give their lands gratis to their brothers-in-faith without any charge or to
leave the land fallow. Thus the Prophet preferred to leave the land fallow
instead of giving it on Muzara’a or tenancy system because of the evils attached
with this system such as exploitation, riba, idle life, and unearned money.
Feudalism depends on cultivation of land through Muzaraa or tenancy system
because no single individual or family, how much efficient and hardworking it
may be, can cultivate vast lands of jagir or estate. Since Muzara’a is
disallowed, Jagirdari cannot exist in Islamic state.
6. Both the major forms of Muzara’a or tenancy system contain elements of riba
and exploitation. In cash tenancy, the landlord gets his fixed rent of land even
if the tenant suffers a loss, and so the transaction becomes like that of riba
on capital because the lender of capital also gets his riba without having any
concern whether the borrower earns any profit or suffers a loss in his business.
In case of share-tenancy, the landlord suffers only loss of his share when the
crop is damaged, but the tenant suffers not only loss of his share but also loss
of capital spent on seeds, fertilizers, pesticide and other inputs. Thus the
transaction becomes tainted with exploitation
In order to facilitate a comparison between Islam and feudalism we may sum up
the basic characteristics of feudalism as follows:
(l) A perpetual serfdom.
(2) The duties which the peasant discharged towards his master consisted of:
(a) a whole day's free and forced labor in the lands of his feudal lord once a
week;
(b) free and forced services rendered by him to his master in special seasons of
harvesting, etc.;
(c) presenting gifts on religious and other similar occasions of festivities,
notwithstanding his poverty or the opulence of the recipient rich landlord;
(d) an obligation to get his food-grains milled in the mills of the landlord.
(We pass over his obligation to get his grapes pressed for his feudal lord as
wine is prohibited in Islam).
(3) The right of the landlord to decide as his whims or desires might dictate as
to the extent of the land to be held by the peasant, the services required of
him and the taxes to be paid by him.
(4) The exercise of all judicial-cum-executive powers by the landlord not in
accordance with a fixed law of the land but according to his own whims and
desires;(12)
Let the readers first look at these and then glance over the whole history of
Islam to find similar characteristics therein. They will surely be disappointed,
for Islam has nothing to do with them.
There is no serfdom in Islam as it recognizes no other form of servitude save
that of slavery, the causes and conditions whereof and the means or freedom from
which we have already dealt with in the preceding chapter. Islam admits of no
bondage arising out or a tenant's being bound to the soil. The only slaves that
we know of in Islam were those captured in wars which are quite sufficient to
prove that in the early Islamic society the number of slaves was far less in
comparison with the total numbers of its free citizens. They worked on the soil
of their masters till they were freed voluntarily or they themselves took the
initiative and demanded as writing of (Mukatabah) their freedom of their
masters. But there exists no such parallel in the history of the European
feudalism as it primarily aimed at the subjection of the peasants as well as the
agricultural workers rather than encourage them to demand freedom. That is why
the peasants in Europe were looked upon as serfs bound to and transferable with
the land from one master to another. As such, they could neither leave the soil
they worked on, nor free themselves from the obligation devolving upon them
towards their landlords.
Islam is not at all familiar with this type of serfdom or villains as it is in
principle opposed to all forms of servitude save that rendered by man unto his
God, the Creator of all life. There is no provision in it for the subjection of
some creatures to other creatures like them. Whenever such an abnormal
state-subjection of some men to others is found due to certain external causes
without any initiative from Islam, it always is a temporary or a transitional
phenomenon, which it strives to do away with, with all the possible resources at
its disposal, encouraging the slaves to earn their freedom besides holding the
state responsible to render to them all possible help towards that end.
In economics too Islam does not recognize any bondage of man to other men like
him. The system of slavery to which we have alluded above is an exception as
there was no other economical alternative before Islam at that time. Islam
tolerated it till the slaves were freed spiritually and till the time they were
able to shoulder their responsibilities as free members of the community,
whereupon Islam actively helped them in winning back their lost freedom.
Islam bases its economic structure on freedom of action coupled with a
relationship of a complete co-operation and exchange of mutual services among
all individuals. The Islamic government as such acts as a guardian and custodian
of all such people as happen to lag behind in the struggle of life for some
reason and are denied all amenities of a decent living. Thus with all the
resources of the state at his backing in an Islamic community no man needs let
himself become a bondsman to the landowners. Islam provides for all his basic
needs without degrading him or making him lose his independence, self-respect or
honor.
Thus both spiritually and economically Islam is opposed to feudalism. It brought
to men freedom from feudalism even before they were caught up in the shackles of
serfdom.
So far as the obligations of the peasant towards his feudal lord are concerned
there is no evidence whatever of their existence in the whole range of Islamic
history.
It is quite free of such nonsense. In this respect, Islam stands quite unique.
In case a peasant is found guilty of some crime, it allows the owner of the land
to discard him and give away the land to another one. But this is not to
encourage oppression; it is rather a step towards the eradication of serfdom.
Islam aims at the establishment of a free relationship between the landlord and
the tenant.
The only relationship that Islam recognizes as lawful between the peasant and
the landlord is either that of contract or that based on tenancy. In the former
case, the peasant is required to pay to the landlord a fixed amount as the rent
of the land proportionate to its produce and after that he remains quite free in
his cultivation and expenditure as well as in the acquiring of all the produce
of the land for his own personal consumption. If he happens to be a tenant he
will share the produce of the land at the end of every year with the landlord.
In such a case all the expenses are borne by the landlord; the peasant provides
the labor only. In both of these cases there is no place for forced labor,
dictatorial privileges or any other obligation incumbent on the peasant to serve
his master without getting anything in return. Both parties rather enjoy full
equality in freedom, in their rights as well as duties with a reciprocity of
mutual give-and-take relationship. The peasant is, in the first place, quite
free to choose the land he would like to hire or the landlord he would prefer to
work with as a tenant. Secondly, he is on a par with the landlord and enjoys as
much freedom to decide or agree to the amount for the contract to be paid by him
to the landlord. If he does not find the bargain profitable he is free to back
out of it and not agree to the contract, the landlord having no power or right
to take him to task for that. As a tenant the peasant enjoys as much legal
privileges as his landlord. They divide the profit thereof equally between
themselves.
Besides this, we also find that contrary to what happened in the history of
European feudalism, the practice commonly prevalent in Islam was quite
different. It was the rich landlord and not the poor peasant who gave presents
and bestowed bountiful gifts upon his tenants on the occasions of Eid and other
festivals. This is specially true about the months of Ramadan, a month of great
importance and religious significance in Islam. During this month, friends and
relations paid visits to each other and were entertained with feasts along with
bestowing bountiful gifts upon the poor and needy ones of their community. It
means, in other words, that the rich and well-to-do people were wont to spend
their riches on others rather than exact costly gifts from the poor people as
was the custom in "civilized" Europe.
From this it is clear that the duties that the peasants were encumbered with in
feudalism and which degenerated into forced labor have no place in the Islamic
system of life. It established rather a free relationship between the landowner
and the peasant with a reciprocal respect and perfect equality. As regards the
duties discharged by the feudal lords in Europe towards their tenants as a
recompense for their unjustifiable forced labor and abject slavery to them in
the form of defending them from others and safe guarding their rights, in
Islamic society the rich people discharged voluntarily similar duties with
regard to their tenants without expecting anything from them in return. In
rendering these services to their fellowmen they sought nothing save God's
pleasure. This is what distinguishes a system of life based on a lofty creed and
the one devoid of it. In the one the social services rendered by a man towards
others assume the character of a worship whereby he is brought closer to his
God, whereas in the other they are nothing more than a commercial enterprise,
each party striving hard to get hold of the lion's share and anxious to yield to
the other nothing but that which is beyond its power to hold longer, with the
result that in the end the most powerful party rather than the one rightfully
deserving emerges victorious and gets away with all the profits.
The third characteristic of feudalism, that is, the right of the feudal lord to
decide as to the extent of the land to be given to the tenant and prescribe the
duties to be discharged by and expected of him, is a thing peculiar to the
European concept of lordship and serfdom only. Such concept had never existed in
the history of Islam which does not recognize the over-lordship of the feudal
lord or the serf-hood of the peasant to him. The only factor which does restrict
the choice of a peasant with regard to his acquiring a lease of land in Islam is
his own free will and financial potentiality. The lesser enjoys no privileges
against this save that of claiming the agreed upon rent of the land from the
peasant. Similarly in tenancy the extent of the land to be farmed by a tenant is
determined by his own physical ability or the number of the helping hands
(consisting of his sons generally) he can get hold of. The duties imposed on him
in tenancy are no more than what the rehabilitation of the land acquired by him
may necessitate. The land in such a case is considered as a common property of
the peasant and the landowner till it brings forth its produce. As to the land
of the landlord other than that held by the tenant in tenancy, the tenant is not
supposed to have anything to do with that, nor is he under any obligation to
work therein whatever the form or nature of such a work or service might be.
The most striking point of difference between Islam and feudalism, however, is
the judicial-cum-executive prerogative enjoyed by the landlord in feudalism. He
alone in feudalism controls and regulates all social and political life within
the bounds of his fiefs. Islam is diametrically opposed to such a prerogative as
it aims at the abolition,
From the above discussion certain facts stand out clearly that have become a
center of the ideological conflict raging in the modern World. Of these the
following facts may be pointed
(1) It is not the factor of ownership as such that inexorably paves the way for
the growth of feudalism with human will having no part in its enhancement. It is
rather the manner of possessing and the nature of relationship between the
owners of the land and those who have no land in their possession that favor its
growth. That is why ownership was there in the Islamic world and yet feudalism
did not exist because the ideology of Islam as well as its various applications
to practical life establish between the individuals such relationships as do not
favor the growth of feudalism.
(2) If Europe was condemned to feudalism it was not because feudalism is an
essential stage of evolution on the path of evolution that can never be bypassed
by mankind even if it should so desire. Europe suffered from it rather because
of the fact that it did not possess any system or creed such as might have
regulated human relationships and offered a sound intellectual guidance. Had
there been present such a creed and ideology as was the case with the world of
Islam, to guide and organize their socio-economic relationships, no feudalism
could ever have sprung up or flourished in Europe.
Conclusion
The study of the Quran and teachings of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him),
teach humans to be kind, compassionate, just, humble and God fearing. The Feudal
system is based on values that are totally opposite these teachings and
obviously those who are the exploiters in this system will not have any excuse
to give on the Day of Judgment. The living conditions of those who work on the
lands are deplorable, often they don’t even have enough to eat or a decent place
to live in. This cannot be justified under any circumstances and above all in a
State that was made in the name of Islam.