وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ الرَّعِيَّةَ طَبَقَاتٌ لَا يَصْلُحُ بَعْضُهَا إِلَّا بِبَعْضٍ، وَلَا غِنَى بِبَعْضِهَا عَنْ بَعْضٍ: فَمِنْهَا جُنُودُ اللهِ وَمِنْهَا كُتَّابُ الْعَامَّةِ وَالْخَاصَّةِ، وَمِنْهَا قُضَاةُ الْعَدْلِ، وَمِنْهَا عُمَّالُ الْإِنْصَافِ وَالرِّفْقِ، وَمِنْهَا أَهْلُ الْجِزْيَةِ وَالْخَرَاجِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الذِّمَّةِ وَمُسْلِمَةِ النَّاسِ، وَمِنْهَا التُّجَّارُ وَأَهْلُ الصِّنَاعَاتِ، وَمِنْهَا الطَّبَقَةُ السُّفْلَى مِنْ ذَوِي الْحَاجَةِ وَالْمَسْكَنَةِ، وَكُلٌّ قَدْ سَمَّى اللهُ لَهُ سَهْمَهُ، وَوَضَعَ عَلَى حَدِّهِ فَرِيضَةً فِي كِتَابِهِ أَوْ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّهِ (صلى الله عليه وآله) عَهْداً مِنْهُ عِنْدَنَا مَحْفُوظاً.
(The different classes of people:) Know that the people consist of classes who prosper only with the help of one another, and they are not independent of one another. Among them are the army of Allāh, then the secretarial workers of the common people and the chiefs, then the dispensers of justice, then those engaged in law and order, then the payers of head tax (jizyah) and land tax (kharāj) from the protected unbelievers and the common Muslims, then there are the traders and the men of industry and then the lowest class of the needy and the destitute. Allāh has fixed the share of every one of them and laid down His precepts about the limits of each in His Book (Qur’ān) or in the sunnah of His Prophet by way of a settlement which is preserved with us.
