The ’ushr and zakât of animals that graze in the fields are paid to the poor, but it is permissible also to deliver them to the Beytulmâl. If a person who has taken possession of something to be given to the Beytulmâl has an allotment from the Beytulmâl, he uses it himself. If he does not have any allotments, he gives it to a Muslim who has an allotment from the Beytulmâl. He does not give it to the Beytulmâl. It is written on the fifty-sixth page of the second volume of Ibni ’Âbidîn: “If people who have allotments from the Beytulmâl take possession of the Beytulmâl’s money, such as the poor, collectors of zakât, scholars, teachers, preachers, students of religious knowledge, debtors, Ahl-i-beyt-i-nebewî, that is, sayyids and
sherîfs, soldiers, it is permissible for them to retain as much of it as is allotted to them.” The author of the fatwâ of Bezzâziyya ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’alaih’, quoting from Halwânî, states: “If the owner of something
entrusted to a person dies, that person gives it to its owner’s inheritors. If he has no inheritors, he gives it to the Beytulmâl. If it will be lost in case it is given to the Beytulmâl, he uses it himself or gives it to those who have allotments from the Beytulmâl.” Zakât means society’s guaranteeing the poor’s living and needs. If any Muslim dies of hunger in any nook of a city and if any
of the rich people in the city has a little zakât left unpaid, he (the rich one) becomes his (the poor one’s) murderer. Zakât is an insurance policy among Muslims. Islam has not entrusted this insurance, which is called Beyt-ul-mâl, to individuals, to opportunists, to those who think of their own advantages only, but has committed it to the State authority. This insurance is unlike other insurance policies. It does not demand money from the poor, but collects it from the rich. In the world, there will be an increase in the property of the rich people who pay zakât. And in the Hereafter they will be given plenty of blessings. Islam’s insurance program helps all the poor. When the chief of a family dies, it makes allowances to his poor family, and makes everyone happy. Islam has established such a social security system through zakât. Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ states: “Two of the four types of property of zakât, that is, the animals of zakât and the produce of the earth are termed Emwâl-i-zâhira. The Caliph’s officials
come and collect them. These officials are called Sâ’î. The State reserves this property collected [and also zakât of Emwâl-i-bâtina, which the officials called ’Âshir collect from travelling tradesmen] in the Beytulmâl, and spends them on all seven groups. Of the kinds of property of zakât, gold, silver and commercial property are called Emwâl-i-bâtina. It is not permissible to ask their owner about their amounts. Their owner himself pays their zakât to anyone he likes of the seven groups. The State cannot demand again zakâts that have been paid in this way. If it is uncovered that
the rich in a city never pay their zakâts, the State can collect zakâts of their Emwâl-i-bâtina.” It is written in Diyâ-ul-ma’nawî[1] and in Îdhâh: “The State cannot collect five things; zakât of Emwâl-ibâtina, the fitra, the qurbân, the nazr, and the kaffârat.” [Recently there has been an increase in the number of those who cannot realise the greatness of the savants of the Ahl-i-sunna ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în’. A savant, not an ignorant
person, knows a savant. Those ignorant people who pass for men [1] Written by Abu-l-Baqâ ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (789-854 [1450 A.D.].)
of religion think of themselves as savants. They introduce one another as Islamic savants to the people. They dislike the ijtihâds of the Selef-i-sâlihîn and say, “We believe in the Qur’ân and the ahâdith only.” They infer some new meanings suitable with their short sights and sterile thoughts from the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. They slander the superiors of the second century (of Islam) and our religious imâms, who are praised in adîth-isherîfs. They strive to cast aspersions on their valuable books. The books of such lâ-madhhabî people as Ibni Taymiyya, Mawdûdî, Sayyid Qutb, Hamîdullah, Abd-us-salâm, a physicist, and Ahmad Didad spread information that is disagreeable with that which has been communicated unanimously by Islamic savants. For example, it is written in the books “World’s Peace and Islam” and “Introduction to Islam” that, “Zakât is a tax paid to the State. The money which the rich give to those poor people they like is not called zakât. Zakât is paid to the State only. The State can give it to poor disbelievers as well. For, miskîn means the poor ones among disbelievers.” It has been explained in detail in the book Answer to an Enemy of Islam that the lâ-madhhabî people are on the wrong way. According to some savants, when a Muslim but cruel sultan imposes a tax on the Emwâl-i-zâhira it is acceptable if one pays it with the intention of zakât. But it does not stand for zakât if the sultan takes the tax from the Emwal-i-bâtinâ, even if one intends for zakât, nor does any kind of property taken by those sultans who are disbelievers or renegades stand for zakât. In this case one has to pay the zakât, too. There are four distinct kinds of goods in the Beytulmâl:
1 – The zakâts that are taken for animals and produce of the earth and those which the ’Âshir takes only from the Muslim tradesmen he meets on their way, are given to the seven groups mentioned above.
2 – One-fifth of the ghanîma and of the metals extracted from the earth, is given to orphans, to miskîns and to those travellers
who have no money left on their way. In all these three groups, those who are Benî Hâshim and Benî Muttalib[1] have priority.
[1] Hâshim was the paternal great grandfather of the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’. Therefore, Rasûlullah’s and his uncles’
descendants are called Benî Hâshim, i.e. Sons of Hâshim, or Hâshimîs (Hâshimites). Descendants of Rasûlullah’s paternal great granduncle
are called Benî Muttalib, i.e. Sons of Muttalib. Nothing is taken for petroleum or other liquids of its kind, for oxides, for ores that do not melt in fire, such as salts, or for things that are obtained from the sea.
3 – The kharâj and the jizya, which are taken from nonMuslims, and goods that the ’Âshir has taken from them. They are spent on public needs such as roads, bridges, inns, schools, law courts, and on national defence. They are given to those Muslims who mount guard over the frontiers and over the roads within the country, to the construction and maintenance of bridges, mosques, ponds, canals, to imâms, muezzins, to those who serve pious foundations, to those who teach and study Islamic knowledge, that is, Islam and science, to qâdîs, muftîs and preachers, to those who
work so that Islam and Muslims will survive and spread. Even if these people are rich, they are given a share suitable with the customs and current prices in return for their work and service. There is detailed information about those who have allotments from the Beytulmâl in the chapter about disasters incurred by the hand in Hadîqa.] When they die, their children are preferred to others if they have the qualifications. If their children are ignorant and sinful, they are not appointed to their fathers’ place. It is written in Eshbâh: “If the Sultan appoints an ignorant person as a teacher, khatîb [speaker of khutba] or preacher, it will not be sahîh. He will have perpetrated cruelty.”
4 – Property left behind by rich people who do not have any inheritors and the luqata, that is, things found unattended and of which no one claims ownership; they are spent on hospitals and on funerals of the poor, and given to poor people who cannot work and who have no one to take care of them. It is the State’s task to make these four groups of goods reach the allotted people. The State appoints officials called ’Âshir to work out of town. These officials protect tradesmen against highwaymen and all kinds of danger. The ’Âshir asks the tradesman he meets on the
road the amount of his property. If it is the amount of nisâb and if he has had it for one year and if it is commercial property, of any kind of goods, he takes one-fortieth from a Muslim, one-twentieth from a zimmî, and one-tenth from a harbî. The property that is taken from the Muslim stands for his zakât. Zakât is not taken from a person who says that he has paid his zakât in the city or that he has not yet had it for one year. Nothing is taken from tradesmen from a country of disbelievers’ which does not take anything from Muslim tradesmen. If it is known how much they take, the same
amount is taken from them. [This implies that those who work in
countries of disbelievers should pay taxes to the related governments.] It is written in the fifty-seventh page of the second volume of Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’: “If there are no more goods left in one of the four treasury departments of the Beytulmâl, some of the property in the other three departments is transferred on loan to this department and given to those who have allotments from this department.” By the same token, when there is no property of kharâj and jizya left in the third department men of religion and those who perform jihâd are paid from the
property of zakât and ’ushr in the first department. At a time when enemies of religion attack by writing and by every sort of propaganda to demolish Islam and to mislead the Muslims’ children out of Islam, writers, societies, courses of the Qur’ân, print-houses, books and newpapers who answer them and who protect Muslims against their deceit are all champions, heroes of Islam. It is fard to give these champions, who protect Islam and Muslims in such a cold war, from the property of ’ushr and zakât in the Beytulmâl. The Sultân’s abrogating the ’ushr does not absolve the Muslims from (paying) the ’ushr. It is fard for them to pay the ’ushr themselves. They should give it to those mujâhids (above-mentioned champions of Islam). Thus they will both perform the fard and attain the thawâb of jihâd. It is written in the two hundred and forty-ninth page of the fifth volume of Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’: “If the property in the Beytulmâl has not been collected in a way fair and halâl, if it has been taken away by cruelty, it is fard to give the property that has been taken unjustly back to its owners. It is not given to those who have allotments from the Beytulmâl. It is harâm for them to accept it. If the owners are not known, the property is put in the fourth department of the Beytulmâl, and given to those who have allotments from that department.”
Endless Bliss Page (43_47)
