by Ahmed Sobhi Mansour

The Hisba is when a a Muslim individual volunteers to interfere in the lives of others once they commit a crime against God or against the people. The rights of God include doctrines and beliefs such as believing in God, His angels, His books, His prophets, as well as praying on time and giving alms, going on pilgrimage, fasting, repenting, and reading the Koran. The rights of people are protecting their money, lives and honor and the right to ownership.

What happens then when a person violates one of God's rights? Everyone tends to more or less agree as to the punishments for murder, burglary, theft, defamation and adultery (although the latter is controversial). But the real controversy arises when one of God's rights is violated through heresy, apostasy, ignoring prayers and abstaining from giving alms. Should the ruler punish this person? Should others interfere in this person's personal life and force him/her to adopt a certain faith under penalty of death? Should anyone force this person to pray or go to pilgrimage? In other words, is the hisba applicable here? And if the hisba is legitimate, and means interfering in someone's life, what are the limits of that intervention? Is it merely offering advice or should it include employing force through both moral and physical punishments? It is here that we find the vast difference between the Qur'an's shari'a which the Prophet exercised, and the shari'a applied by the clergy since the Abbasside era.

This difference lies in the political system itself. The Prophet's state was founded on shura, freedom and justice, while the Ummayyds and the Abbasside states were founded on power, violence, injustice and the banning of rights. The Umayades were not bothered with acquiring a sanctioned fatwas to justify their actions, even while murdering Al Hussein and his followers, or while violating the Kaaba during the reign of Yazeed bin Moaweya. The Abassides built their state under the slogan of gaining approval from the family of Mohammed, claiming to be his relatives and descendants. They clearly needed a legitimate and justifiable reason that would entitle them to murder their enemies on demand.

This is why they created new religious posts that would reinforce their powers, the most notable of which was creating the post of al hisba, or the mohtaseb. Al Hisba was therefore a new term not mentioned in the Koran, nor in any of the approved hadiths except to mean a 'volunteer'. The clergy of the Abbasside era found in the issue of Al Amr bel Maaroof wal Nahy an el Monkar a supportive basis for their hisba, making it an official religious post that would operate politically in favor, and at the service of, the State. This was approved despite the fact that the hisba itself is a volunteer work that by definition contradicts official employment and paid work.

It has been historically established that the hisba was unknown during the times of the Prophet as well as during the times of the great Caliphs, although the latter killed their enemies of the Khawareg, Shi'a and Mawali on the grounds of mere suspicions. The Al Haggag, the Ummayade ruler over Iraq, killed his opponents just for doubting their loyalty, without need for legal justification nor courts. This system continued until the Abassides destroyed the Umayades with the help of the Persians.

In the wake of the rise of the Abasside State with the help of Persian leader Abi Muslim al Kharsani, immediate suspicions began to surface between him and Abi Gaafar Al Mansour, the Abbasside Caliph. The latter felt insecure about his own power in the presence of Abi Muslim until he finally murdered him with his own hands in the year 137 higri. Despite the precautions he took, he could not prevent the Persian rebellions in Kharsan and the Eastern provinces under the leadership of Fatma bint Abi Muslim, daughter of the slain leader. At the same time Abi Muslim's followers within the Abbasside state and in Baghdad began conspiring against the Caliph in order to assassinate him. The Caliph knew that among the administrators and military of his state there were many of Abi Muslim's followers. Those of them who announced their loyalty to the Caliph were still treated with suspicion. Being a military Caliph who founded his Caliphate on religious grounds, needing to protect his state and defeat his enemies, he sought a religious legislation that would accomplish two objectives:

First: getting rid of his enemies and the conspirators against him within the State.

Second: portraying him as a defender of the faith who kills apostates, heretics, and all enemies of religion.

In this political environment, the redda(apostasy) punishment was created and the hisba position made.

The Abbasside state sent its forces to fight the Persian rebels under the leadership of Fatma, while concurrently steering its ulemas inside Baghdad to kill opponents under the guise of apostasy. Since there is no punishment for apostates in Islam, the State's clergy invented two hadtihs stipulating for the punishment of apostates, and the state immediately began inflicting such punishments.

The war between the two factions continued, and the Abbasside state sent its army to fight the Persians in the East. Fatma and her followers announced that they were adopting their old faith which is the Mazdakeya. They therefore fought the Abbasside state under that umbrella. Within the State itself, the Abbassides continued to pursue Fatma's aids and supporters, who were murdered for being heretics and apostates. Among those murdered were the poet Bishar bin Bard and poet Ibn Abdel Koddoos.

The Caliph Abu Gaafar adviced his son and follower Al Mahdi to pursue and murder apostates, and this son in turn adviced his own son Al Hadi with the same. The Abbasside era therefore was clearly founded on pursuing and murdering their opponents and enemies under the guise of apostasy.

It should be noted that many other 'apostates' were left completely unharmed since they did not criticize the State. Among them were poet Abi Al Ataheya, Ibn Saba and many others, some of whom were even close to the Caliph himself. Historians therefore agree that the term al mohtaseb appeared for the first time during the reign of Al Mahdi (158-169 higri; 774-785) and the first mohtaseb was called Abdel Gayar, otherwise known as Friend of the Apostates, whose duty was to seek apostates and murder them. This was in 163 higri.

This therefore was the scene that created the job of hisba and it is no wonder that it is mostly contradictory with many of the Qura'n's shari'a. Since the Abbasside era witnessed the beginning of scribing Islamic thought including the fikh , the hadith s and the interpretations, we have therefore inherited this deception and lived with it as though it were Islam itself, although God has given us the Qur'an and said that He would protect it so that we would always get back to it as a basis for our belief.