All of the following information was
translated originally from
Durr-ul-mukhtâr, and from Ibni Âbidîn’s
Radd-ul-mukhtâr, which is an explanation of the former:
By the
first light of the morning of the first day of ’Iyd of Ramadân, to give the
Fitra becomes wâjib for every free Muslim who has property or money as much as
the amount of nisâb in addition to his indispensable possessions and debts. It
does not become wâjib before or after that time. The property that is to be
included in the calculation of nisâb for fitra and Qurbân does not necessarily
have to be intended for trade, nor does one have to have had it for one year.
The condition is that one should have property as much as the amount of nisâb
by the time morning prayer becomes performable on the first day of ’Iyd. Giving
the fitra is not wâjib for a person who receives the amount of nisâb or who is
born, or becomes a Muslim after that moment. It is necessary also for the
safarî (traveller) to give the fitra. It is also permissible to give it during
Ramadân-i-sherîf, before Ramadân, or after the ’Iyd. Furthermore, if a person
died before giving the fitra, zakât, kaffârat or something he vowed, and if he
did not will it in his last request that it must be given, it is permissible
for one of his inheritors to give it to the poor out of his own property, [not
necessarily out of the dead person’s property]. But the inheritor does not have
to give it. If he willed that it must be given, it is necessary to give it out
of a third of the property he has left behind. His will is not executed if he
has not left property. There will be more blessings if the fitra is given
before the ’Iyd prayer. It cannot be given before Ramadân in Shâfi’î Madhhab
and before ’Iyd in the Madhâhib of Mâlikî and Hanbalî. As one person’s fitra
can be given to one or more poor people, so one poor person can be given the
fitras of several people. If a small child or an insane person has property,
his fitra is also given out of his property. If their guardian does not give
it, the child gives his past fitra when he grows up and the insane person gives
his when he recovers. If a child below the age of puberty does not have
property, its father gives its fitra together with his own fitra. That is, he
gives it if he is rich. He does not have to give the fitra for his wife or
older children. But he attains blessings if he gives it.
It is written in Durr-ul-mukhtâr
and Radd-ul-muhtâr, “If a person gives
the fitra for someone else out of his own property, it becomes permissible if
the latter has commanded it in advance. If
he has not given it with the latter’s
command, it does not become permissible even if he consents afterwards. If he
has given it out of the latter’s property, it becomes permissible when the
latter gives the consent (afterwards). A man can give the fitras of the people
he is supporting in his home without their advice. If one commands one’s wife
[or someone else] to give one’s fitra, too, and if she (or he) mixes her (or
his) wheat with one’s wheat without one’s permission and gives the mixture to
the poor, she (or he) will have given only her (or his) fitra. For, according
to Imâm-i-a’zam she (or he) will have used the wheat by mixing the two amounts
of wheat with each other, and thus the wheat will become her (or his) property.
But it does not become her (or his) property according to the two imâms. If she
(or he) has mixed them with one’s permission, one’s fitra also will have been
given according to Imâm-i-a’zam, too (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în). If
the act were done the other way, the wife’s fitra would have been given, too.
For it is permissible for the husband to give the wife’s fitra as a kindness
out of his own property without her permission. He can either mix the fitras of
his wife and other household and give them without their permission, or weigh
the wheat or gold equal to their total at once and give it to one or more poor
people. But it is circumspect to prepare them separately and then mix them or
give them separately.”
If one
loses one’s property after having had the amount of nisâb, that is, after fitra
and Qurbân having become wâjib and hajj having become fard, one is not absolved
from them. But zakât and ’ushr are forgiven since the property has left one’s
possession. But these are not forgiven, either, if one purposely disposes of
it.
He who
has the nisâb of fitra and Qurbân is called rich. It is wâjib for him to give
fitra. And if he is mukallaf, which means discreet, pubert and settled (not
travelling), it is also wâjib to perform the Qurbân only for himself. It is
harâm for him to take zakât, and wâjib to support his poor male relatives who
cannot work and his poor mahram female relatives.
Basic needs
include a house, a month’s food, three suits each year, underwears, things and
gadgets used in the house, servants, means of transportation, books on one’s
profession, whatever their value, and one’s debt. They do not have to exist. If
they exist they are not included in the calculation of nisâb for zakât, fitra
and Qurbân. Those possessions that are not intended for trade and are more than
one’s need, one’s houses rented out, ornamental things in one’s house, carpets
that are not laid on the
floor, spare furniture that is not used,
and tools of art and trade are not considered as necessary property in this
respect. They are included in the calculation of nisâb for fitra and Qurbân. If
the house one is living in is big, it is sahîh that the spare rooms that one
does not use are not included in the nisâb. See the beginning of chapter 4,
which is about Performing the Qurbân.
For
fitra, half a sâ’ of wheat or wheat flour is given. Or one sâ’ of barley or
dates or raisins is given. In Hanafî Madhhab, at times when wheat, barley and
flour are abundant it is better to give their equivalents in gold and silver.
During times of scarcity it yields more thawâb to give these things themselves.
In Hanafî Madhhab sâ’ is (the volume of) a container with the capacity of one
thousand and forty dirhams of millets or lentils. One sâ’ is four muds, that
is, four menns. Mud and menn are equal and are two ritls. One ritl is a hundred
and thirty dirham-i shar’î or 91 mithqâl, so one sâ’ is [728] mithqâls, or
[1040] dirhams, that is 3500 gr. of lentils. Since barley is lighter than wheat
and wheat is lighter than lentils, a container that is filled with one thousand
and forty dirhams of barley is larger than one sâ.’ But it will be
circumspection to call it one sâ.’ It will be circumspection to give 364
mithqâls, or five hundred and twenty [520] dirhams, which is seventeen hundred
and fifty [1750] grams, of wheat instead of half a sâ.’ Thus a little more will
have been given. For, half a sâ’ of wheat is lighter than 364 mithqâls, or five
hundred and twenty dirhams. I, the faqîr -Hüseyn Hilmi Iþýk- experimented by
using a balance and a cylindrical glass measuring jug, and found out that a
hundred grams of lentils is a hundred and twenty cubic centimetres.
Accordingly, one sâ’ is equal to four litres plus one-fifth litre [4.2 litres].
In the Madhâhib of Shâfi’î, Mâlikî and Hanbalî, to give the fitra is
fard for a person who has a day’s food, and of whether wheat or barley it is
always necessary to give one sâ.’ In Shâfi’î Madhhab one sâ’ is one-third of a
menn less than three menns. One menn is two ritl-i-Irâqî, or 260 dirhams. Then,
one sâ’ is six hundred and ninety-four [694] dirhams, which is written in Al Anwar. In other words, it is one thousand, six
hundred and eighty [1608] grams. For in Shafi’î Madhhab a dirham is
the wheat itself. The Madhâhib of Mâlikî
and Hanbalî are the same as Shâfi’î Madhhab in this respect, and so one sâ’ is
five ritls plus one-third a ritl, that is, 694 dirham-i-shar’î, or
A
person who does not fast because of a good excuse has to give the sadaqa fitr.
Because the sadaqa fitr is small, it is given in silver. It is written
in the book Jawhara, “When giving the
sadaqa fitr, instead of wheat or barley, its value can be given in gold or
silver, in fulûs, that is, metal coins [and paper bills], or in any other kind
of property.” And it is written in Durr-ul-mukhtâr,
“Its value is given in gold and silver.” To explain these statements, Ibni Âbidîn says, “The book Jawhara says that fulûs and urûz, that is, kinds
of property, can be given, yet when ‘value’ is said gold and silver are usually
meant. Also Zeyla’î (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) conveys that it is better to
give its value in gold or silver.” Then, one should follow the words of the
majority and give the fitra in gold or silver. Silver money is not in use now.
And the value of paper money has been made dependent upon that of gold.
Therefore, the value of silver with respect to the currency is below its value
in the Sharî’a. It is given with its value according to the currency so that it
will be to the advantage of the poor. In case it is difficult to give them, one
should give half a sâ’ [1750 grams] of wheat or flour instead of giving other
property or paper money. One may also give paper money instead of gold by
following the facility we have described in the first chapter. In the Madhâhib
of Mâlikî and Hanbalî it is better to give dates, in Shâfi’î, it is better to
give wheat, and in Hanafî it is better to give what is most valuable.
If it
is difficult also to give wheat or flour, one may give bread or corns of equal
value. To give bread and corns, not their weight but their cost or value is
considered.