Is it obligatory for a non-Muslim woman to pay jizya?

Question

Scholars say that jizya is not obligatory for non Muslim women. Is their any sahih evidence for this.

Answer 1

No^*. Jizyah is only due from adult, sane, free, males from the disbelievers.

The basic evidence for this is the verse:

قاتلوا ... حتى يعطوا الجزية

Fight ... until they give the jizyah

^{— Quran 9:29}

Jizyah is an escape from fighting and execution, while it is forbidden to fight or kill women in the first place, so they don't require the protection of Jizya.

فنهى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن قتل النساء والصبيان

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) forbade the killing of women and children.

^{— Bukhari and Muslim}

The hadith on Jizyah has the wording حالم which means adult male:

يأخذ من كل حالم - يعني محتلما - دينارا

When the Prophet (ﷺ) sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal to the Yemen, he ordered him to take one dinar for every adult (male)

^{— Abu Dawud}

Further there is the instruction of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khatab:

أن عمر، كتب إلى عماله: لا تضربوا الجزية على النساء والصبيان

Umar wrote to his governors: Do not impose Jizya on the women and the children

^{— Sunan al-Kubra Bayhaqi, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah etc.
classed as Sahih by al-Albani in Irwa' al-Ghaleel}

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* _{This is the view of the overwhelming majority, such that many scholars have claimed consensus on it. However Ibn Hazm has diverged on it.}