M. Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui: Role of Booty in the Economy During the Prophet's Time, Comment محمد ياسين مظهر صديقي: دور الغنيمة في الاقتصاد خلال زمن النبي ، تعليق: أكرم دايال عمري

Dr. Muhammad Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui's paper Role of Booty in the Economy during the Prophet's Time has the statistical approach. The author depends on the primary sources that allude to the numbers of camels, cattle, weapons, foods, and clothes acquired as booty by the Muslim army. The most important of these sources in this respect is al-Maghazi of al-Waqidi (d. 207 A.H.) which is one of the richest sources of the Sira era in numbers, dates and description of events. AI-Waqidi was a knowledgeable, erudite scholar; he owned a large library and used to trace by him self the locations where the Sira events had occurred. He did this traveling to far-off places in severe desert circumstances during a period when the camel was the main means of transportation. But al-Waqidi, despite his recognizable position as a Maghazi writer, has not been authenticated by Hadith critics. Thus it is inconvenient to cite evidence from him in matters related to belief ('aqeeda) or law, but one may make use of his knowledge in history and historical geography, in view of his command over these subjects. Hence Dr. Muhammad Yasin Mazhar Siddiqi's study turns out to be an interesting approach supporting the view that the actual motives for Islamic Jihad during the Prophet's time were not to obtain booty, but to disseminate Islamic Faith and emancipate people from whims and fancies related to polytheism. --