Mu'adh's Counsel on the Land of Syria at al-Jabiya

مشورة معاذ في أرض الشام بالجابية

c. 637 CE · c. 16 AH

In al-Baladhuri from Abdullah ibn Qays al-Hamdani: Umar ibn al-Khattab came to al-Jabiya and meant to divide the land among the Muslims, it having been taken by force; Mu'adh ibn Jabal told him 'by God if you divide it, what we dislike will come of it — the abundance passes into the hands of a people who then perish, leaving it to one, then after them come people who stand in Islam's stead and find nothing — so look to an affair that suffices their first and their last', and Umar adopted Mu'adh's counsel; on it he founded the kharaj regime of the Syrian sawad, leaving the land in its people's hands against jizya on heads and kharaj on land.