Page (14-23)
Are things that protect one from death. The
first of them is subsistence. There are three kinds of subsistence.
Food, clothing, and housing. Food includes things needed in the
kitchen as well. And housing includes things needed in the house.
One’s beast of transportation or a car, weapons, servants, tools of
art, and necessary books are counted among vital needs.
Going on hajj also requires having money and property more
than these vital needs. Subsistence is the subsistence for you and
for those who it is wâjib for you to support. Of these things the
ones that are more than you need and all books other than
religious and professional ones are sold to make money for hajj
and are included in the nisâb of Qurbân and Fitra. But they are not
included in the nisâb of zakât unless they are intended for trade.
To go on hajj, if you have a house other than the one you live in,
you sell it. But you do not sell the spare rooms of one house. It is
not necessary to sell the house you live in and then rent another
house. It is permissible to buy your vital needs before the time of
hajj comes. After hajj has become fard, it is not permissible to
spend the money of hajj to buy them. You should go on hajj first.
While explaining the hajj, Ibni ’Âbidîn says: “Your food or money
for one year is counted as subsistence. You sell what is more than
that and go on hajj. A tradesman’s, a craftsman’s, an artisan’s or a
farmer’s capital customary in his region is of the vital needs when
the hajj is concerned. Your subsistence and that of those who it is
wâjib for you to support are calculated in accordance with the
customs of your city and with your friends. It is necessary to eat
good food and to wear good, clean and beautiful clothes. But one
should not be a spendthrift. Human rights are to be paid before
Allah’s rights. You should not borrow money in order to go on
hajj, unless you are sure that you will be able to return it.”
Money which you have reserved for buying your vital needs or
for meeting the expenses of your funeral is included in the
calculation of nisâb. If a person has only that money and if it is still
not below the amount of nisâb one year after it has reached the
amount of nisâb, he pays zakât of what remains in his possession
of that money. For, zakât, fitra and qurbân are not conditional on
having the vital needs. What you have of these things is not
included in the calculation of nisâb.
If gold or silver or commercial property remains in your
possession for one hijrî (Arabic) year (354 days) from the day its
weight or value has reached the amount of nisâb, it is fard for you
to reserve with the intention of zakât one-fortieth of what has
remained and pay it to poor Muslims. It is wâjib to pay it as soon
as possible. It is makrûh to delay it without any good excuse
(’udhr) to do so. It is not necessary to intend or to say that it is
zakât while giving it. This is so in all four Madhâhib.
The nisâb of gold is twenty mithqâls. A mithqâl is a unit of
weight. Weight, length, volume, time, and value [money] measures
are designated as shar’î and ’urfî units. Shar’î units were used
during the era of our Prophet Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam’ and are referred to in hadîth-i sherifs. The four Madhhabs’
imâms reported the definitions of the values of these units in
different ways. ’Urfî units denote customary usage or units of
measure adopted by the government. The four Madhhab imâms
have described mithqâl equivalents differently. For example, the
mithqâl equivalents in the Hanafî, Shâfi’î, and Mâlikî Madhhabs
differ. Similarly there are also various ’urfî mithqâls. In the Hanafî
Madhhab, one mithqâl is twenty qirâts (carats). One qirât-i-shar’î
equals five peeled cut-ends of dry barley seeds. During my
experiments, (the blessed Walî and profound scholar Hüseyn
Hilmi Iş›k ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ meant Himself,) [made on a very
accurate balance in a pharmacy] I observed that 5 seeds of barley
weighed twenty-four centigrams (gr. 0.24). Hence, one shar’î
mithqâl is a hundred seeds of barley, while it is written in
(Zahîra)[1] that one mithqâl is seventy-two seeds of barley
according to the Mâlikî Madhhab. Hence one mithqâl is three and
a half [3.456] grams in Mâlikî and four point eighty [4.80] grams in
Hanafî. Hence, the nisâb of gold is 96 grams. The last adopted
measure of ’urfî mithqâl, during the time of the Ottoman Empire,
was 24 qirâts and one qirât was 20 centigrams (gr. 0.20). Therefore,
an ’urfî mithqâl equals 4.80 grams. In this case, shar’î mithqâls and
’urfî mithqâls are of the same weight. Since the Ottoman and
Republican gold coins both weigh one and a half mithqâls and one
gold coin weighs 7.20 grams, the amount of nisâb is 20 ÷ 1.5 or 13.3
gold coins. 13.3 gold coins weighs 96 grams. In other words, it is
fard to pay zakât for one who owns thirteen and one third (13.3)
gold coins or its paper money equivalent. When one says, “A
mithqâl equals 20 qirâts” one must specify shar’î mithqâl. It is
necessary to multiply 20 by the 0.24 gram weight of the shar’î qirât
to find out how many grams a mithqâl weighs. If the calculation
had used the weight of the ’urfî qirât (0.20 gr.) the product of 4
grams would not be the correct weight of a shar’î mithqâl or an
’urfî mithqâl. It is incorrect to say the nisâb of gold will equal
4×20=80 grams by using the wrong qirât designation.
The nisâb of silver is two hundred dirham-i-shar’î. One dirhami-shar’î is fourteen qirât-i-shar’î, which is equal to seventy seeds of
barley. According to the Mâlikî Madhhab it is equal to fifty-five
seeds of barley, or [2.64] grams. The weight of ten dirhams is equal
[1] Zahîra-t-ul-fiqh-ul-kubrâ, by Tâhir Muhammad Suleymân Mâlikî of
Sudan ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’.
to the weight of seven mithqâls in the Hanafî Madhhab. When
three-tenths of a mithqâl is subtracted from one mithqâl the
remainder is one dirham. When three-sevenths is added to one
dirham the total is one mithqâl. One dirham-i-shar’î is three grams
and three hundred and sixty miligrams (3.360 gr.) [0.24×14=3.36].
Therefore, in the Hanafî Madhhab the nisâb of silver is 2800 qirât
or 672 grams. One majidiyya [An Ottoman silver coin] is five
mithqâls, that is, one hundred qirât-i-shar’î, or twenty-four grams.
So, zakât is fard for a person who has twenty-eight majidiyyas.
Since twenty mithqâls of gold and two hundred dirhams of silver
indicate one common amount of nisâb, their values must be equal.
Accordingly, in Islam, one mithqâl of gold has the value of ten
dirhams of silver, which has the weight of seven mithqâls of silver.
Then one gram of gold has the value of seven grams of silver. In
Islam, the value of gold used for money is seven times the same
weight of silver money. Today, silver is not used as money. The
value of silver is very low. For this reason, the value of silver
cannot be taken as a basis in calculating the nisâb of paper money
or commercial property today. Ibnî ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’alaih’, says in the section about zakât of property: “The qirât-i-
’urfî is four grains of barley. The dirham-i-shar’î is equal to seventy
grains of barley. One dirham-i-’urfî has the weight of sixteen
qirâts, that is, sixty-four grains of barley; so the dirham-i-’urfî is
smaller.” [Then, this dirham-i-’urfî, which was formerly used, is
approximately three grams. The one qirât which was used during
the latest times of the Ottomans was the weight of four seeds of
wheat. It was twenty centigrams, and the dirham was 16
qirâts=3.20 grams.]
It is written in the book al-Muqaddemat-ul Hadramiyya: “In
the Madhhab of Shâfi’î, one mithqâl weighs 24 qirâts. So one
dirham-i-shar’î is 16.8 grams.” It is said in the books Misbâh-unnejât, and Anwâr li a’mâl-il-abrâr: “In the Madhhab of Shâfi’î, one
mithqâl equals 72 seeds of barley. One mithqâl exceeds one
dirham by three-sevenths of one dirham. The value of a
commodity or commercial property is computed through its
themen, that is, its purchase price.” Since one mithqâl is 24 qirâts,
and this equals 72 seeds of barley, then in the Shâfi’î Madhhab one
qirât weighs three seeds of barley or 14.4 centigrams. Therefore, if
one mithqâl equals 3.45 grams, hence twenty mithqâls equals 69
grams, which is approximately nine and a half gold coins. Because
one dirham is three-tenths a mithqâl less than a mithqâl in the
Madhâhib of Shâfi’î and Hanbalî, one dirham is 16.8 qirâts, that is,
two grams and fourty-two centigrams [2.42 gr.] in the Madhâhib of
Shâfi’î and Hanbalî. So the nisâb of silver is four hundred and
eighty-four (484) grams. It is written in Jawâhir-uz-zakiyya[1] that
in the Mâlikî Madhhab one mithqâl is 72 grains of barley and one
dirham is 55 grains of barley. In the Shâfi’î Madhhab zakât of one
kind of property cannot be given from another kind of property.
For example, silver cannot be given for gold; or barley for wheat.
It is written in Kimyâ-yi-se’âdat and also in Fatâwâ-i-fiqhiyya by
Ibni Hajar-i-Mekkî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ that it is permissible
for Muslims in the Shâfi’î Madhhab to follow the Hanafî Madhhab
and give in cash[2] for property and give to one or more classes of
people they choose instead of giving to all seven classes.
It is written in the thirtieth page of the second volume of Durrul-mukhtâr: “The dirham-i-shar’î is used when the nisâb of zakât is
to be calculated in silver. Also there have been those (savants)
who have said that the ’urfî dirham in use in each city can be used
for zakât.” In explaining these lines, Ibni ’Âbidîn writes: “Those
savants who say that the dirham used in every city can be used,
add: Yet the weight of the dirhams used should not be less than the
lightest one of the three kinds of dirham used during the time of
Rasûlullah ‘sall Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’. The lightest dirham
weighed half a mithqâl, i.e. ten qirâts. Otherwise, it must be
calculated with the dirham-i-shar’î, which weighs fourteen qirâts.
The majority of Hanafî savants advise this dirham. This dirham is
meant in the books of both the old ones and the new ones.” As is
seen, zakât cannot be calculated with dirhams that were used in a
country in old times and which have been superseded later or with
the new ones that weigh less than the dirham-i-shar’î. For this
reason, it is not permissible to calculate the nisâb of zakât in silver
with the dirhams of Istanbul or Egypt now. It is necessary to
calculate it with the dirham-i-shar’î, which weighs three grams and
thirty-six centigrams [3.36 gr.].
According to the majority of the ’Ulamâ, zakât of gold and
silver must be paid, regardless of the form or shape they are in and
the purpose they are being used for. In the accepted unanimity (by
the ’Ulamâ) in the Shafi’î Madhhab and in the Hanbalî Madhhab,
zakât is not paid for gold and silver which women use for ornament.
Because gold and silver are soft when they are pure, they
cannot be used as cash or as an ornament. They are used in alloys
[1] Written by Ahmad bin Turkî.
[2] ‘Gold’ or ‘silver’ is meant by ‘cash’, not ‘notes’ or ‘coins’.
mixed with metals such as copper. Gold and silver alloys of more
than fifty per cent gold and silver, that is, with more than twelve
carats, are judged to be pure. Their degrees of purity is not taken
into consideration. But those alloys half or less of which is gold or
silver are like commercial property. [It is written in a fatwâ of
Ebussu’ûd Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ that in the time of
Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ the
nisâb of silver was 840 aqchas, which means that one aqcha was a
silver coin of 0.24 dirhams, i.e., eighty centigrams (0.8 gr.)].
Abdurrahman Şeref Bey says in his book, Târih-i Devlet-i
Osmâniyye (History of the Ottoman Empire) printed in 1309
[1892 A.D.]: “During the era of Süleyman the Magnificent, three
aqchas were being minted out of one dirham of silver. After 1100
[1688 A.D.], the amount of silver dwindled by a sixth. It was
written on the Ottoman Calendar dated 1308 [1891 A.D.] that
one piece is three aqchas and one aqcha equals three fulûs.”
The value of commercial property, i.e. its purchase price at the
time of the calculation of the nisâb, is calculated in gold or silver
money used in buying and selling, and the one as per which it
reaches the amount of nisâb earlier is to be taken as basis for the
calculation (both in the determination of the date whereby it
becomes fard to pay the zakât and in the amount to be paid.) If it
equals the amount of nisâb in accordance with either one of them, it
is to be calculated with the one that is more advantageous to the
poor. It is not calculated with gold or silver which is not used for
money. The value is calculated with the one that has the lowest value
of the kinds of gold and silver money monetized by the government.
The value is calculated anew according to the current prices on the
day when its zakât becomes fard according to the one with which it
has first been calculated, i.e. when one year has elapsed over the
nisâb, and one-fortieth of the new value, i.e. of its current price of
purchase, or of the property itself, is given. At places where gold and
silver are now not used as money, other metal coins and paper bills
are equivalents to gold. The nisâb for commercial property bought
with such money or for paper bills or for fitra or qurbân is, according
to the Shaikhayn (Imâm-i-a’zam and Imâm-i-Abû Yûsuf
‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ alaihimâ’), calculated in the one that has the
lowest value of the officially marked gold coins. It cannot be
calculated in silver. It is written in Kashf-ur-rumûz-i-ghurer:
[1] “The
value of a commodity is determined with gold or silver”.
[1] Written by ’Abd-ul-Halîm, Mufti of Damascus.
No matter how many they are, zakât is not paid for houses,
apartment houses, mechanical implements, machines, lathes,
lorries, ships, or for things used in the house, when they are not for
trade, that is, for sale. Artisans, manufacturers, and producers give
zakât of raw material and of production. Zakât is not paid for fixed
assets. Nor is it given for what is reserved for use in a house from
commercial commodities or for a year’s household needs reserved
from commercial food. That is, all these and the debts to be repaid
are not included in the calculation of nisâb. All the gold, silver and
paper kinds of money which one keeps in order to buy all those
things or to buy the means of subsistence, such as food, drink,
clothes and housing, are included in the calculation of nisâb. That
is, their zakât is to be paid.
Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ says: If the value of
one’s commercial property does not amount to the nisâb according
to gold and silver and if one also has gold and silver, one adds the
value of the property to the value of the gold and silver to
complete the nisâb. For example, if one has wheat for sale the
value of which is a hundred dirhams of silver, and five mithqâls of
gold the value of which is hundred dirhams as well, one shall pay
zakât. For the sum of the values of the gold and the wheat is two
hundred dirhams according to silver and this equals the nisâb.
A person who has gold only, pays zakât in gold. He cannot pay
its value in silver. Nor can zakât of silver be paid in gold. A person
who has gold or silver or paper money only, and who does not
have commercial property, cannot give other goods as its zakât. It
is written in Shernblâlî’s book Marâqilfalâh: “Instead of gold and
silver it is acceptable to give their value in urûz, [that is, any kind
of living or non-living property other than gold and silver.]” But if
the same page is read completely it will be understood that it is to
be given out of one’s commercial property instead of gold and
silver. As a matter of fact, Tahtâwî adds the following explanation
in his annotation to that book: “Urûz means commercial
property.” As is stated clearly in all books of fiqh, a tradesman
who has commercial property as well as gold and silver, even if
each of them is equal to the amount of nisâb by itself, can pay
zakât for his gold and silver out of his commercial property.
While discoursing upon zakât of sheep, Ibni ’Âbidîn
‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ says: Instead of the commodities that
are to be given as zakât, ’ushr, kharâj, fitra, nazr or kaffârat, it is
permissible to give their equivalents in value. That is, available as
they may be, one may give zakât commodities of the same or
different kind or gold or silver money of the same value. [It will be
explained later on that paper money cannot be given.] The value of
an animal is calculated according to the current prices of the day
when it will be given. Three fat sheep can be given instead of four
medium sheep. But equivalents of the same kind cannot be given
instead of goods that are measured by weight or volume. Their
equivalents of a different kind can be given. Zakât of gold and
silver is given in weight, that is, by weighing. But zakât of crops that
are intended for trade is given by volume. Equivalents of the same
kind for such things which are measured by weight or volume
cannot be given, for this practice entails interest. For example,
instead of five dirhams of silver alloyed with copper, four dirhams
of pure silver which is of the same value cannot be given. Five
dirhams of lower carat silver can be given instead of five dirhams
of pure silver. But it is makrûh to knowingly do so. Instead of five
kilograms of low quality wheat, four kilograms of high quality
wheat which is of the same value cannot be given. It is necessary to
give one more kilogram. But when giving another kind of
commercial property as zakât of any of these it is given according
to its calculated price of purchase in the concerned country. For
example, if a silver pitcher that weighs two hundred dirhams is
worth three hundred dirhams on account of the art or handicraft it
bears, five dirhams of silver shall be given as its zakât. Gold worth
five dirhams of silver cannot be given instead. It is necessary to give
gold worth seven and a half dirhams of silver. If one has both gold
and silver each amounting to nisâb one gives their zakâts
separately by weight, but even in this case, that is, a person who has
both gold and silver is permitted to calculate their value and give
in either one even if they are the amount of nisâb, provided it shall
be to the advantage of the poor, that is, the current one shall be
given. If one has both gold and silver one or both of which are less
than the amount of nisâb and if in this case the nisâb of one of them
can be complemented by calculating either one with the other, it
can be given instead of the other as well. Still, one should calculate
and give the one which is advantageous to the poor. [Please see
chapter 5.] If the value of a silver pitcher weighing one hundred
dirhams is two hundred dirhams owing to the workmanship, its
zakât is not due. For, zakât is calculated according to weight. A
person, who has hundred and fifty dirhams of silver and five
mithqâls of gold the value of which is forty dirhams, shall give
zakât. For, though the total amount calculated by the addition of
gold to the silver does not amount to the nisâb, the total amount
calculated by the addition of the silver to the gold reaches the
nisâb. If a person has ninety-five dirhams of silver and one mithqâl
of gold and if the value of one mithqâl of gold is five dirhams of
silver, it complements the nisâb of gold and so he pays zakât.
If a person dispenses millions to the poor without reserving onefortieth with the intention of zakât or without intending to pay
zakât at the time of giving it to the poor, he will not have paid zakât.
For, it is fard to intend when reserving (the prescribed amount) or
giving it to his deputy or to the poor or to the poor’s deputy.
If the money or the commercial property one has decreases and
becomes less than the nisâb or increases before one year has
elapsed after the time it reached the amount of nisâb, this does not
affect zakât. In other words, if it is not less than the amount of
nisâb at the end of the year zakât of the amount possessed is to be
paid. One does not deduct the amount of money that will be
necessary to buy such things as food, clothes and housing or to pay
the rental from the money which one has at the end of the year.
After paying zakât of all the money one spends the remainder
buying these things. In the Madhâhib of Hanafî and Shâfi’î, if the
nisâb is depleted or if one depletes it before the end of the year,
that is, if one does not have the amount of nisâb any longer, the
previous nisâb lapses. If the amount possessed reaches the nisâb
again one waits for another year, and if one still has the nisâb at the
end of the year, one reserves with the intention of zakât one
fortieth of what one has and gives it. In the Mâlikî and Hanbalî
Madhâhib the case is the same if the nisâb is depleted. But if one
depletes the nisâb in order to evade paying zakât the previous
nisâb does not become void. If one obtains a large quantity of
money or property[1] after one year and a few days have passed, the
zakât of this extra amount does not have to be immediately paid.
Its zakât is added to the following year’s zakât if at that time one
still possesses that amount also. A loan due to one and something
that one obtains are different things. It is written in the eighty-sixth
page of the book Jâmi’-ur-rumûz[2]: “Those things that are
[1] in addition to the amount of nisâb that one already has
[2] A commentary which Shems-ad-dîn Muhammad bin Husâm-ad-dîn
Quhistânî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’, (d. 962 [1555 A.D.], Bukhâra,) wrote
for the book Nikâya, which in turn is itself a commentary written by
’Ubeydullah bin Mes’ûd for the book Wikâya, which his grandfather
Mahmûd bin Sadr-ush-sharî’at-ul-awwal Ahmad bin ’Ubeydullah
Mahbûbî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (martyred in 673 [1274 A.D.] by
the Mongolian hordes,) had written for him.
obtained before one year has passed after one had the amount of
nisâb, such as commercial property bought, beast of pasture
(Sâima), gold and silver obtained through birth, gift, inheritance or
bequest, even if they are obtained when the end of the year is quite
near, are included in the nisâb of their own kind and zakât of the
sum is given at the same time. This means to say that those that are
obtained after the year is over are not included in the nisâb. That
is, they are not included in the (previous) year’s zakât but are left
over for zakât of the following year. It also means that if they are
obtained by one who does not have the nisâb their zakât is not to
be paid that year.”
Endless Bliss
