9. Responsibilities of Civil Servants (in the Light of Islamic Teachings) — Islamic Studies

Core Responsibilities

Office as Amanah
- 4:58 obliges rendering trusts to those entitled and judging with justice; misuse of public office is a breach of trust.
Honesty and integrity (Sidq, Amanah) — the foundation of every other duty.
Justice and impartiality — equal treatment of citizens regardless of status, wealth, religion or connections.
Diligence and competence — modelled on Umar's (RA) rigorous selection and continuous monitoring of governors.
Financial austerity
- Umar (RA) audited governors' personal wealth before and after tenure — famously questioning Abu Huraira (RA) about his increased wealth while governor of Bahrain.
Prohibition of gifts/bribery in an official capacity.
Continuous self-accountability (Muhasabah) — remains answerable to Allah even where no worldly oversight exists.

Qur'anic Evidence

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إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدِّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا

اردو: بےشک اللہ تمہیں حکم دیتا ہے کہ امانتیں ان کے اہل تک پہنچاؤ۔

English: "Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due."

— Surah An-Nisa 4:58

Hadith Evidence

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مَنِ اسْتَعْمَلْنَاهُ عَلَى عَمَلٍ فَرَزَقْنَاهُ رِزْقًا فَمَا أَخَذَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَهُوَ غُلُولٌ

اردو: جسے ہم نے کسی عہدے پر مقرر کیا اور اسے تنخواہ دی، پھر اس کے علاوہ جو لے وہ خیانت ہے۔

English: "Whoever we appoint to a position and provide with a salary, anything he takes beyond that is misappropriation (Ghulul)."

— Sunan Abu Dawud 2943

CSS Exam Tips

Discuss the responsibilities of civil servants in the light of Islamic teachings.
Cross-reference: System of Accountability (Hisbah), Letters of Umar and Ali to Public Authorities.

20-Mark Enrichment — Analytical Material

Core Argument

This is the sub-topic written directly for the candidate's own future. The 20-mark thesis: in Islam a civil servant is a trustee of a public amānah who will be interrogated about every person under his authority — and from that single status flow eight concrete duties: merit in entry, competence in performance, justice in decision, integrity in money, accessibility to the citizen, consultation in policy, courage in refusing unlawful orders, and simplicity in personal conduct. Write the answer as a professional code, with Qur'anic and prophetic authority for each duty, and it will read as the work of a future officer rather than a student.

1. The Foundational Status — Trustee, Not Master

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا — "Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due." — (4:58) — office is a trust held for others.
كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ (Bukhārī & Muslim) — the officer is a shepherd, answerable for the flock, not its owner.
مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ يَسْتَرْعِيهِ اللَّهُ رَعِيَّةً يَمُوتُ يَوْمَ يَمُوتُ وَهُوَ غَاشٌّ لِرَعِيَّتِهِ إِلَّا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ — one who dies having been dishonest toward those in his charge is forbidden Paradise (Bukhārī & Muslim). The severity of this text should be stated plainly; it is the strongest warning in the tradition against administrative dishonesty.
ʿUmar (RA) to his governors: "I did not appoint you over the Muslims to take their blood or property, but to lead them, judge among them with justice and distribute among them fairly."

2. Duty One — Merit and Legitimate Entry

إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ اسْتَأْجَرْتَ الْقَوِيُّ الْأَمِينُ — "Indeed, the best one you can hire is the strong and the trustworthy." — (28:26) — capability plus integrity; either alone is disqualifying.
Yūsuf (AS): إِنِّي حَفِيظٌ عَلِيمٌ — "Indeed, I will be a knowing guardian." — (12:55) — trustworthy and knowledgeable.
مَنِ اسْتَعْمَلَ رَجُلًا مِنْ عِصَابَةٍ وَفِيهِمْ مَنْ هُوَ أَرْضَى لِلَّهِ مِنْهُ فَقَدْ خَانَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ — appointing a lesser candidate over a better is treachery against Allah and His Messenger: the Islamic prohibition of nepotism and political recruitment.
إِنَّا لَا نُوَلِّي هَٰذَا الْعَمَلَ مَنْ سَأَلَهُ (Bukhārī & Muslim) — the office is not for those who lobby for it.
Application: competitive examination, transparent promotion, prohibition of sifarish, and the officer's own duty not to seek posting through influence.

3. Duty Two — Competence and Diligence

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ إِذَا عَمِلَ أَحَدُكُمْ عَمَلًا أَنْ يُتْقِنَهُ — "Allah loves that when one of you does a work, he does it with excellence (itqān)" (Bayhaqī, widely cited). Professional excellence is worship.
The Prophet's ﷺ warning against accepting an office one cannot discharge: to Abū Dharr (RA), "it is a trust, and on the Day of Resurrection a disgrace and regret, except for one who takes it by right and fulfils what is due" (Muslim).
Continuous learning: رَّبِّ زِدْنِي عِلْمًا — "My Lord, increase me in knowledge." — (20:114); طَلَبُ الْعِلْمِ فَرِيضَةٌ — a duty that does not end with the examination.
Punctuality and use of time: 103:1–3; the officer's working hours are public property.

4. Duty Three — Justice and Impartiality

وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ — "and when you judge between people, to judge with justice." — (4:58); كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ — "Be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves." — (4:135).
وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا — "And let not the hatred of a people prevent you from being just." — (5:8) — political, ethnic or sectarian hostility is no ground for unequal treatment.
The Makhzūmī case: "had Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad stolen, I would have cut off her hand" (Bukhārī & Muslim) — the law binds the powerful first.
ʿUmar's (RA) instruction to Abū Mūsā: equality of the parties in your presence, your assembly and your judgment.
Non-Muslim citizens: ʿAlī's (RA) "either your brother in religion or your equal in creation"; the Copt's retaliation against ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ's son.

5. Duty Four — Financial Integrity

Bribery: لَعَنَ اللَّهُ الرَّاشِيَ وَالْمُرْتَشِيَ (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī); 2:188 — offering wealth to officials to consume others' property unjustly.
Gifts: the Ibn al-Lutbiyyah case — "why does he not sit in his mother's house and see whether the gift comes to him?" (Bukhārī & Muslim). This is a complete conflict-of-interest doctrine: a gift given because of the office belongs to the office, not the officer.
Ghulūl (misappropriation): 3:161 — whatever is taken will be carried on the Day of Resurrection; and the ḥadīth of the man who concealed a cloak from the spoils.
Public property is not the officer's: ʿUmar (RA) extinguishing the state lamp for private conversation; ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz separating the state candle from his own.
Adequate pay as the counterpart: ʿAlī (RA) to Mālik — extend their provisions generously, so they have no need of what is under their charge and no argument if they betray it.
Application: asset declaration, prohibition of gifts and hospitality, post-retirement conflict rules, and refusal of favours for family contracts.

6. Duty Five — Accessibility and Service to the Weakest

ʿAlī (RA) to Mālik: "appoint a portion of your time for those who come to you personally, sit for them in a public assembly, humble yourself before Allah, and keep away your guards and attendants so that their spokesman may speak without fear."
ʿUmar (RA): no chamberlains; night patrols; carrying flour himself to a hungry family; "if a dog dies of hunger on the banks of the Euphrates, I fear Allah will question ʿUmar about it."
Abū Bakr (RA): "the weak among you is strong in my sight until I secure his right."
51:19 — the right of the poor in public wealth is a ḥaqq, not a favour.
Application: open kutchery, grievance redress, service delivery measured by the experience of the poorest citizen, and the prohibition of humiliating petitioners.

7. Duty Six — Consultation, Counsel and the Courage to Refuse

Consultation: 42:38, 3:159 — decisions taken after genuine consultation carry legitimacy and better information.
Counsel: الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ (Muslim) — sincere advice to superiors and to the public is a religious duty, not insubordination.
Refusing unlawful orders: لَا طَاعَةَ لِمَخْلُوقٍ فِي مَعْصِيَةِ الْخَالِقِ (Aḥmad); and لَا طَاعَةَ فِي مَعْصِيَةٍ، إِنَّمَا الطَّاعَةُ فِي الْمَعْرُوفِ (Bukhārī & Muslim). This is the single most professionally consequential ḥadīth for a serving officer.
وَلَا تَرْكَنُوا إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا فَتَمَسَّكُم النَّارُ — "And do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you." — (11:113) — do not incline toward the oppressors; complicity is punishable.
أَفْضَلُ الْجِهَادِ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِنْدَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī).
Application: recording dissent in writing, declining to implement an illegal instruction, and accepting the professional cost of doing so.

8. Duty Seven and Eight — Confidentiality, Simplicity and Personal Conduct

Confidentiality: official information is an amānah; 8:27 — do not betray Allah, the Messenger and your trusts knowingly. Leaking or trading official information is khiyānah.
Privacy of citizens: وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا — "and do not spy [on one another]." — (49:12); 24:27 — limits on surveillance and search; ʿUmar (RA) refusing to act on evidence obtained by climbing a wall.
Verification before action: 49:6 — decisions on rumour or unverified intelligence are prohibited.
Simplicity and restraint from privilege: ʿUmar's (RA) rules barring governors from fine clothing, refined food and closed doors; the ostentation of office as a barrier between the officer and those he serves.
Personal character: truthfulness (ṣidq), patience under pressure, control of anger (Bukhārī), humility (no one enters Paradise with an atom of arrogance, Muslim), and modesty in dealing with subordinates — إِخْوَانُكُمْ خَوَلُكُمْ (Bukhārī).

Contemporary Application in Pakistan

Constitutional and statutory alignment: Articles 4, 9, 14, 19-A, 25; the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1964 — which restrict gifts, private trade, and public criticism — and the Efficiency and Discipline Rules; the Civil Servants Act 1973.
Institutions: the Wafāqī Mohtasib as maẓālim; NAB and the Auditor-General as instruments of muḥāsabah; the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 as transparency.
The gap to diagnose: high stated religiosity coexisting with poor governance indices — precisely the gap the ḥadīth of the muflis describes, in which prayer and fasting are outweighed by the rights of those wronged.
Practical undertakings a candidate can name: refusing sifarish in transfers and postings, declining gifts, holding regular open hearings, publishing departmental performance, and documenting dissent from unlawful instructions.

Qur'anic Evidence Bank

al-Nisāʾ 4:58 — trusts to those entitled; judge with justice. The master verse.
al-Nisāʾ 4:135 / al-Māʾidah 5:8 — impartiality.
al-Qaṣaṣ 28:26 / Yūsuf 12:55 — competence and integrity.
al-Baqarah 2:188 — bribery.
Āl-ʿImrān 3:161 — misappropriation of public property.
al-Anfāl 8:27 — do not betray your trusts knowingly.
Hūd 11:113 — do not incline toward the oppressors.
al-Ḥujurāt 49:6, 49:12 — verification; no spying.
al-Dhāriyāt 51:19 — the poor's right in wealth.
al-Isrāʾ 17:36 — hearing, sight and heart will all be questioned.

Hadith / Seerah Application

كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ (Bukhārī & Muslim).
مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ يَسْتَرْعِيهِ اللَّهُ رَعِيَّةً ... وَهُوَ غَاشٌّ لِرَعِيَّتِهِ إِلَّا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ (Bukhārī & Muslim).
Ibn al-Lutbiyyah on gifts (Bukhārī & Muslim).
لَا طَاعَةَ فِي مَعْصِيَةٍ، إِنَّمَا الطَّاعَةُ فِي الْمَعْرُوفِ (Bukhārī & Muslim).
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ إِذَا عَمِلَ أَحَدُكُمْ عَمَلًا أَنْ يُتْقِنَهُ (Bayhaqī).
The ḥadīth of the muflis (Muslim) — good deeds transferred to those one wronged.

Critical / Analytical Angle

The examiner reading this answer is, in effect, interviewing a future colleague. Two moves matter. First, translate every principle into a mechanism: it is not enough to say a civil servant must be honest; say that ʿUmar (RA) recorded officials' assets before appointment and audited them after, that ʿAlī (RA) prescribed adequate salaries so that theft would not be necessary and trusted observers so that it would not be safe, and that the Prophet ﷺ located corruption in the appearance of a gift rather than waiting for proof of a bribe. Islam's contribution is not moral exhortation — every tradition offers that — but the pairing of an internalised monitor (iḥsān) with institutional machinery (ḥisbah, maẓālim, audit). Second, be honest about the gap: Muslim-majority states rank poorly on corruption indices despite high religiosity, and the reason is that the first half of the pairing survived while the second was hollowed out. A candidate who says this, and then commits to specific personal conduct rules, demonstrates exactly the seriousness the paper is designed to detect.

Model 20-Mark Answer Skeleton

Introduction (2) — office as amānah; 4:58 and kullukum rāʿin.
Merit and legitimate entry (2) — 28:26, the nepotism ḥadīth.
Competence and diligence (2) — itqān; the warning to Abū Dharr.
Justice and impartiality (3) — 4:135, 5:8, Makhzūmī, ʿUmar's letter, non-Muslim citizens.
Financial integrity (4) — bribery, Ibn al-Lutbiyyah, ghulūl, asset audit, adequate pay.
Accessibility and service to the weakest (3) — ʿAlī to Mālik, ʿUmar's patrols, 51:19.
Consultation, counsel and refusal of unlawful orders (2).
Confidentiality, simplicity, Pakistani application and conclusion (2).

✍️ Full Model Answer — Exam-Ready Prose

Introduction (2 marks): A civil servant in Islam is a trustee, never an owner, of the authority placed in his hands. This flows directly from إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا — "Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due" (al-Nisāʾ 4:58) — and from the Prophet's ﷺ statement, "each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is answerable for his flock" (kullukum rāʿin, Bukhārī & Muslim). From this single status of trusteeship flow every specific duty discussed below.

Merit and Legitimate Entry (2 marks): Entry into public service must rest on ability and integrity: "indeed, the best one you can hire is the strong and the trustworthy" (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:26). The Prophet ﷺ made nepotism a matter of treachery rather than mere impropriety, warning that appointing an inferior candidate over a superior one "has betrayed Allah and His Messenger" — the Islamic case for competitive examination over political recruitment.

Competence and Diligence (2 marks): Excellence in one's work is itself an act of worship: "Allah loves that when one of you does a task, he perfects it" (itqān, Bayhaqī). The Prophet ﷺ warned Abū Dharr (RA) that public office "is a trust, and on the Day of Resurrection a disgrace and regret, except for one who takes it by right and fulfils what is due" (Muslim) — a direct caution against accepting responsibility one cannot properly discharge.

Justice and Impartiality (3 marks): The civil servant must "stand firmly for justice... even if it be against yourselves" (al-Nisāʾ 4:135), and must never let "hatred of a people prevent you from being just" (al-Māʾidah 5:8). The Prophet ﷺ declared of a noblewoman's theft, "even if Fāṭimah, the daughter of Muḥammad, were to steal, I would cut off her hand" (Bukhārī & Muslim), while ʿUmar (RA) instructed his judge Abū Mūsā to treat every party equally "in your presence, your assembly and your judgment" — a standard extending, as ʿAlī (RA) taught, to non-Muslim citizens who are "either your brother in religion or your equal in creation."

Financial Integrity (4 marks): The Prophet ﷺ pronounced, "Allah has cursed the giver and the taker of bribes" (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī), and when the official Ibn al-Lutbiyyah claimed a personal gift from his tax rounds, the Prophet ﷺ asked from the pulpit why he had not waited to see if the gift would still come to him in his mother's house — a complete conflict-of-interest doctrine. Misappropriation (ghulūl) is condemned in 3:161, and ʿUmar's (RA) practice of auditing officials' wealth before and after appointment, paired with generous salaries so that need offered no excuse, remains the model anti-corruption mechanism.

Accessibility and Service to the Weakest (3 marks): ʿAlī (RA) instructed Mālik al-Ashtar to set aside time for the poor personally, "keeping away your guards and attendants so that their spokesman may speak without fear," while ʿUmar (RA) patrolled Madīnah at night and once carried flour himself to a hungry family, saying he feared being questioned even about a dog dying of hunger on the banks of the Euphrates. Sūrah al-Dhāriyāt establishes that "in their wealth is a right for the petitioner and the deprived" (51:19) — a right, not a favour.

Consultation, Counsel, and Refusal of Unlawful Orders (2 marks): Decisions taken after genuine consultation (42:38, 3:159) carry greater legitimacy, and sincere counsel to superiors is a religious duty: الدَِّّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ — "religion is sincere counsel" (Muslim). Most consequentially for a serving officer, the Prophet ﷺ ruled, "there is no obedience in disobedience [to Allah]; obedience is only in what is right" (Bukhārī & Muslim), making the refusal of an unlawful order not insubordination but religious duty.

Confidentiality, Simplicity, Pakistani Application, and Conclusion (2 marks): Official information is itself an amānah not to be betrayed (al-Anfāl 8:27), and ʿUmar's rules barring governors from fine clothing and closed doors model the simplicity that keeps an officer close to those he serves. In Pakistan, the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1964 and the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 give these same principles statutory form. A civil servant in Islam does not hold power over the public; he holds the public's trust on loan — and the Prophet ﷺ warned that the officer who dies having been dishonest with those in his charge will not enter Paradise.

One-Line Conclusion for a 20-Mark Answer

A civil servant in Islam does not hold power over the public; he holds the public's trust on loan — and the Prophet ﷺ warned that the officer who dies having been dishonest with those in his charge will not enter Paradise.

📌 Past Paper Questions — CSS 2017–2026

Every FPSC question on this topic, linked to its solved model answer. Open the year page and jump to the Q number.

Asked directly (1 time):

2018 · Q5 — Highlight the responsibilities of civil servants in the light of Islamic teachings. → 2018 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

Related questions:

2024 · Q8(b) — The importance of epistles of Hazrat Ali (RA) — the letter to Malik al-Ashtar is the classic civil-service charter. → 2024 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

🎯 Exam pattern: Amanah (4:58), justice, merit, honesty, accessibility, accountability (kullukum ra'in). As a future civil servant, add a short Pakistan angle: Quaid's 1948 address to civil officers.