ENGLISH-1 Revenue Laws in the Yūsufzai State of Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (An Analysis from Islamic Law’s Perspective)

The taxation system is crucial for every country to perform its duties in an organized way and, at the same time, to develop itself, too. The Yūsufzai state of Swat, on the same way, had been developed vividly with an efficient system of ‘Ushar and Zakāt – the tax tools at that time. In this research endeavor, the taxation laws of  the former Swat state, with primary focus on ‘Ushr, had been discussed and analyzed, too, critically from Sharī’ah perspective – as the head of the state, at that time, used to claim all state laws as Sharī’ah based. While probing this claim, only authentic and reliable sources had been used; applying the content analysis technique of qualitative research. During the analysis, it came to know that tax laws in the state were originated, primarily, from Islamic law followed Rewāj and laws of developed nations. These latter sources were either Sharī’ah based or Sharī’ah complied – at least. The mechanism for the collection of tax was including, not exhaustively, the contract of ‘Ijāra (lease) through auction process. This method of auction was in line with Sharī’ah. The ‘Ijāragar (contractor), for instance, was allowed to collect more than the stipulated quantity which he used to keep it as profit.in addition to this, ‘Ushar and Zakāt were also used as main sources for the generation of revenue. The mechanism, followed, herein, was also Sharī’ah based to a large extent.  In addition, some other revenue sources were derived from Rewāj. Study reveals that few of such sources were in consistent with the basic guidelines of Islamic law.