Zakāt is collected from the main wealth in a ratio of two-and-a-half per cent every year. The state collects this tax as it collects any other tax. It is the state again which is in charge of its
expenditure. It is not a procedure that takes place between two individuals face to face. Zakāt is a tax. The state collects it and spends it on certain places. Zakāt is not an individual gift of alms that passes from hand to hand.
If, today, some people divide the zakāt of their property by themselves and distribute it with their own hands, this is not the way or system which Islam commands.
Sayyid Qutb, being unable to refrain from repeating Ibn Taimiyyas words on zakāt, disagreed with the Ahl as-Sunna scholars also on this point. Mawdūdī and Hamidullah, too, write the same about zakāt. The four madhhabs of the Ahl as-Sunna unanimously report that zakāt means to give (tamlīk) a certain part of ones fully possessed zakāt goods obtained in a halāl way to seven out of eight kinds of Muslims decribed in the Qurān al-kerīm. In the Hanafī madhhab, it can be given even to only one of them. These seven kinds of Muslims are: faqīr; miskīn; āmil, the collector of the zakāt of stock animals and that of farm products called ushr; one who is on hajj or ghazā; one who is far away from his home or property; one in debt; the slave who is to be set free. It is commanded in the Qurān to give zakāt also to the eighth class, i.e. people called al-muallafat al-qulūb who were some disbelievers, who were hoped to become Muslims or whose harm was to be prevented, or some weak Muslims who had newly embraced Islam. Rasūlullah (alaihi s-salām) had given zakāt to all these three kinds of people. But Hadrat Umar (radiy-allāhu anh) who was in charge of Bayt al-māl during the time of Hadrat Abū Bakr (radiy-Allāhu anh), quoted an āyat-i-kerīma, which is recorded in Ibn Ābidīn, and a hadīth, which is known as the hadīth of Muādh and which the same source reports to exist in all the (books of hadīth called) Kutūb-i-sitta[1], and said that Rasūlullāh (alaihi s-salām) had abolished the payment of zakāt to al-muallafat al-qulūb. The Khalīfa and all the Sahābat al-kirām admitted this and came to an agreement, which is called (ijmā), on
---------------------------------
[1] Its lexical meaning is The Six Books. In the Islamic terminology, it signifies the six most famous books of hadīth written by six great Islamic scholars. Detailed information is available in the sixth chapter of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss.
the fact that it had been abolished (by the Messenger of Allah), and therefore people in the eighth group were no longer paid zakāt. Abolition (of a religious principle) could be done as Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam was alive, and ijmā (on the fact that it had been abolished) could be done after his death. Those who cannot comprehened this delicacy suppose that Hadrat Umar (radiy-Allāhu anh) himself abolished it and they castigate the Sahābat al-kirām and fiqh scholars. As it is reported in Badāyi and other books, it is always permissible to give goods or money to the enemy for the benefit of Islam and to prevent their harm, but it can be given not in the name of zakāt but from another division of Bayt al-māl. Then, it has not been prohibited to give something to the persons called al-muallafat al-qulūb, but it has been prohibited to pay them zakāt.
There are four types of property of zakāt: gold and silver; commercial goods; quadruped stock animals; crops. The zakāt of the products growing from the earth is called ushr. It is written in Majma al-anhur and Radd al-muhtār, The State had been collecting every kind of zakāt from the rich until Khalīfa Uthmān (radiy-Allāhu anh) left it to them to deliever personally the zakāt of gold and silver and commercial goods. He did this so that the officials who collected the zakāt should not torment the people or take zakāt from the debtors. Thus he also protected the debtors from imprisonment. All the Sahābat al-kirām agreed with him and ijmā took place. When the possessors of these kinds of property pay their zakāt, the State cannot demand it. If it demands, it will be opposing the ijmā. To say that one cannot pay the zakāt himself means to disignore the ijmā of the Sahābat al-kirām of the time of Hadrat Uthmān (radiy-Allāhu anh). The Ahl as-Sunna scholars, having comprehended the greatness of the Sahābat al-kirām, did
not follow their own points of view and understanding but adapted themselves to the jimā of the Sahābat al-kirām.
The Ahl as-Sunna scholars declare that the rich person has to hand his zakāt to the poor. If a rich person nourishes an orphan under his guardianship with the intention of zakāt, he has not paid the zakāt by doing so. He should give the food to the child and the child should consume its own possession. If a rich person puts the gold on a table and a poor one takes it from the table, it will not be accepted as zakāt; the rich person must see the poor or his representative take it. If he, with the intention of zakāt, lets a poor person live in his house and if he does not charge him, it will not be accepted as zakāt, for he has to give goods to the poor. Of the four types of property of zakāt, the legal (mashrū) State collects the zakāt of certain animals and
crops and of the commercial property brought into the city from abroad. But the
State has to distribute what it has collected to poor Muslims, i.e., it collects it as the poors proxy. The money of zakāt cannot be spent for any of the charitable deeds such as building mosques, fountains, roads or dams or performing hajj or jihād. Every type of zakāt should be handed to one of the seven kinds of people or to his proxy. The State cannot use the zakāt it has collected in other fields but gives to the seven kinds of people. It is more blessed for a rich person to give it to his poor relatives, poor pious Muslims and to the poor who study knowledge. The Hadīth says, O my umma! I swear by Allāhu taālā, who has sent me as the Prophet, that Allāhu taālā does not accept the zakāt given to others while one has poor relatives, that is, it will not be rewarded in the next world. It cannot be given to mulhids, that is, to those men of bida who have become unbelievers like the Mushabbiha.
It is a revolution to overthrow and annihilate the State. Muslims who disobey the commands of a mashrū State[1] are bāghīs (rebels). As it is written in Ibn Ābidīns Radd al-muhtār, if a Muslim who lives in dār al-harb or under the oppression of bāghīs or of a cruel government has given them the zakāt of animals and ushr and knows that what he gave them has been handed by them to one of the certain seven kinds of people, or if he himself has distributed them to the poor, a mashrū State cannot take zakāt and ushr again; but, if they have taken the zakāt of gold and silver and commercial goods, the rich person has to repeat it by giving zakāt to the poor. Some books considered bāghīs and cruel governments to be poor people if they were Muslims, and regarded it to be jāiz for them to collect every kind of zakāt and spend them as they wished. This clearly tells that zakāt has to be
given to the poor.
In Durr-i Yektā, one of the most valuable Turkish ilm al-hāl books, it is written: Of the four types of property of zakāt, gold and silver and commercial goods are called al-amwāl al-bātina (covered possessions). It is not permissible to investigate covered possessions and to ask for their zakāt. It has been left to their possessors to estimate the amount of such possessions and pay their zakāt. The possessor is free to pay his zakāt to any poor person he likes. The animals of zakāt and farm products are called al-amwāl az-zāhira. It has not been left to the owner to estimate
---------------------------------
[1] Mashrū means legitimate. A state that is mashrū is one that is legitimate according to Islam.
the amount of al-amwāl az-zāhira and to distribute its zakāt to the poor. These will be done by the āmil, the official sent by the imām of Muslims.
What men need and keep for use is a possession. A few seeds of wheat, a spoonful of soil, a draught of water are not possessions, since not all or some people keep them.
If paper money would not be used with the value written on them, they would be of no value, for these pieces of paper, when prohibited to be used as currency, would no longer be in circulation, become useless and would not be kept for use. Ibn Ābidīn wrote on Sarf in his Radd al-muhtār: If flūs (copper coin) is legal tender, it will be money worth the value written on it. If the value written on it is cancelled, it becomes worthless. So is the paper money. He wrote on the thirteenth page, The promissory note has two meanings; the value written on it and the papers own value. The value written on it indicates the possession which is dain, that is, ones own possession which one does not have with oneself. The papers own value is very little. He wrote on the sixteenth page that the values written on the notes or checks of salary that will be received from the State indicate ones possessions that are dain. So are the values
on paper money.
The zakāt of ones full possessions, that is, his property which he is permitted and able to save or use, should be given. If they are not his full possessions, their zakāt need not be given. If the property of zakāt is in his hands, it is called ain. If someone else keeps it, it is called dain. In trade, property is ain or dain under different conditions. Mabī, goods that have been bought, become ones possesions after contract but it is not permissible to use them before delivery. For this reason, these goods are not ones full possessions before delivery. They cannot be included in the calculation of zakāt before delivery. Before the saman (exchange, payment) of sold property is paid, it can be given to anybody if it is ain in the agreement, that is, if it is sold for cash. If the saman is dain in the agreement, thait is, if it is sold on credit, it can be given only to the debtor (buyer). For this reason, the saman also will be included in the calculation of zakāt before it has been received.
Whether ain or dain, one year after ones full possessions of al-amwal al-bātina reach the amount of nisāb (the border of richness), it is fard to set aside one-fortieth of it and dispense it as zakāt. It is written in the book Ad-durr al-mukhtār that its zakāt is dispensed in five manners, as follows:
1) If some dain property is in a poor persons hands and if all or a part of it is donated to that poor person, the zakāt of the property that has been donated will have been paid as dain, too. If dain property in a rich persons hands is donated to him, its zakāt has to be paid to the poor as ain in addition by the donor.
2) The zakāt of property which is ain should be given as ain. That is, in order to pay the zakāt of a property which is present, the owner will separate one-fortieth of this property which is in his hands and give it to the poor.
3) The zakāt of property which is dain cannot be paid as dain. It should be paid as ain, that is, the zakāt of your property which someone else keeps must be paid out of your property which is present in your hands. If you have no property present, you ask for and take as much as the amount of the zakāt of your property from the one who keeps your property and then give it to the poor.
4) It is not permissible to pay the zakāt of property which is ain as dain, that is, it is not permissible to donate what you have lent to other poor people to a poor person as the zakāt of your property which is present in your hands. But, it is permissible for you to command the poor person to get the debt which someone else owes you, as the zakāt of your property which is in your hands, for it will become ain when the poor man takes the property or gold from the debtor, and thus the zakāt of your property which is ain will have been paid as ain. The zakāt of property which a poor person keeps as dain cannot be paid from that dain property, for the remainder will become ain when you take it from the poor person and the zakāt of ain will have been paid
as dain, which is not permissible.
5) If you donates a part of the dain which a poor person owes you to that poor person, the zakāt of that part will have been paid. It will be necessary to pay the zakāt of the remaining part separately as ain. You cannot count what you have donated as the zakāt of the remaining part, for the remainder will become ain when you take it back and the zakāt of ain will have been paid as dain, which is not permissible.
It is written in Al-fiqhu ala l-madhāhibi l-arbaa, which covers the teachings of fiqh according to each of the four madhhabs separately, that whereas it is necessary in the three madhhabs to pay the zakāt of paper money, its zakāt is paid when the gold or silver equivalent of it is obtained in the Hanbalī madhhab.
The zakāt of paper money is paid not out of their own value but out of the values written on them, for their own value is very little and it cannot reach the border of richness. As already written above, the values on them indicate the property which is dain. Since the zakāt of dain cannot be paid as dain, the zakāt of paper money cannot be paid in paper money. It is necessary to pay it in ain, that is, to get the dain property into your hands and then hand it to the poor person. Moreover, any kind of debt must be paid from the property of zakāt first. While there is property of zakāt, that is, gold and silver or commercial goods, it is not permissible to pay the debt by giving other property, for example, rugs and pearls that are used in the house and whose
zakāt is not to be paid. The zakāt of paper money, too, is a debt which one owes to the poor. One has to pay this debt from the property of zakāt. Gold is the property of zakāt of the person who is not a tradesman but who is rich only by possessing paper money, because paper money is the equivalent of gold. They are not the equivalent of silver. If a person has various kinds of property of zakāt such as gold, silver, commercial goods and zakāt animals, he has to pay his debt from gold and silver first[1]. The goods a person who is not a merchant buys are not his commercial goods. It is not permissible for him to buy something other than gold to pay the poor as zakāt, for the goods that are not commercial for him cannot be paid as zakāt. He has to buy gold and pay it.
In order to give the zakāt of commercial goods, their buying price must be as much as the amount of nisāb in gold or silver money, and one-fortieth of the goods themselves or of their value will be given. Ash-Sharnblālī says in the explanation of d-Durar, If the metal coins called flūs are current, or if they are commercial goods, it is wājib to pay the zakāt out of their value. It is declared in a hadīth quoted in Hidāya, Calculating the value, five dirham of silver will be paid for two hundred dirham.
As it is seen, for the zakāt of flūs and paper money, not they themselves but as much gold as their value must be paid. Those who are not merchants should pay the zakāt of their paper money only in gold. Merchants may pay the zakāt of their paper money either in gold or from the goods which they sell, but they cannot pay it from other goods.[2]
A person might come forth and say:
---------------------------------
[1] ad-Durr al-mukhtār, and Radd al-muhtār, p. 8.
[2] For detailed information on zakāt, see Endless Bliss V, 1.
It was in ancient times to pay zakāt in gold. Today, gold is not used. Paper money is used everywhere. Now, to say that zakāt has to be paid in gold is to arouse difficulty for Muslims. Allāhu taālā declares, Do not arouse difficulty, show easiness! The use of paper money has become al-balwā al-umūmiyya. The scholars have given permission to use the thing which has become al-balwā al-umūmiyya. Then, why should not zakāt be paid in paper money today?
These words are not correct. They are both wrong and slanderous against Islamic scholars, for the following reasons:
Do not arouse difficulty in the religion, does not mean Look about for the easiest way of doing everything. It means that one can do the easy way Islam allows. For example, when it is difficult for one to wash ones feet because of illness or very cold weather, one can rub (mash) his mests[1] lightly with wet hands, for Islam has permitted it. Yet you cannot put on your mests before washing your feet for easiness, because Islam has not permitted this easiness. The sick person
can wash his feet with the help of someone else. If it is cold, he can use warm water and put on his mests after this. Islam has permitted this easiness also. It is not permissible to slight the words of religious scholars and exceed the easiness shown in fiqh books. Those who strive to change Islam according to their own reasons and points of view are called religion reformers or zindīqs. Such zindīqs have increased in Egypt and in Hijāz today. They explain Islam in the way they wish. The religion-merchants, who give these heretics and zindīqs such titles as profound religious scholar of the present century, mujtahid, mujaddid and martyr and who translate and sell their poisonous books and who earn money by demolishing the religion and īmān of the people, have been increasing in our country, too.
Our scholars have permitted al-balwā al-umūmiyya, that is, the things that are so widespread that it is hard to dispense with them, after having studied the books minutely and finding among various ijtihāds the easiest one even if it would be daīf and reporting it to the people. When al-balwā al-umūmiyya is in question, it is permissible to give fatwā according to the most daīf words of mujtahids. But, no scholar in any century has ever said permissible about something which no mujtahid had said to be permissible, nor can he say. As for religion reformers who do not
---------------------------------
[1] Light soleless shoes. See Endless Bliss IV, 3.
belong to any madhhab, they write everything which comes to their minds. Both the worship and the faith of those who follow them will be corrupted.
It is very easy to pay zakāt in gold. It is not difficult at all. It is not necessary to buy gold. A rich person who insists on distributing his zakāt to the poor in paper money does as the books Ashbāh and Radd al-muhtār write how a rich person can donate the debt a poor person owes him as his zakāt to him: he borrows from his wife or somebody else some gold of the same value as the paper money which he wants to distribute and is less than the amount of nisāb. He says to a pious poor Muslim, I will pay zakāt to you and to some of my acquaintances. Our religion commands to pay zakāt in gold. In order to make it easy for you to change the gold into paper money, I want you to appoint so and so as your proxy to take your zakāt and gift it to anybody he wants. Thus, you will
help me to follow Islam and, for this, you will be additionally rewarded in the next world! A person whom the rich man trusts is appointed as the proxy. He gives the gold as zakāt to the proxy when the poor person is absent. This proxy of the poor person takes the gold and, a few minutes later, presents it as a gift to the rich person. And the rich person distributes his paper money to that and other poor people, to schools for teaching the Qurān, to Muslims who render service to the religion or perform jihād. If he distributes them to those whom it is not permissible to give and those who do not perform salāt, he will not be rewarded in the next world though he will escape the punishment of not paying zakāt. He returns the gold to the person from whom he has borrowed it. If he has to give more zakāt, he repeats
this procedure.
To a person with īmān, worshipping is not difficult but easy and sweet.