Page (23-32)
It is necessary to pay
zakât for paper money, too. The Shiites say that zakât for money
other than gold and silver is not to be paid. The author,
‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, of the book Tâtârhâniyya, a copy of
which exists with number 1968 in the library of Nûr-i-Osmâniyye
(in Istanbul) writes in the ninety-fifth page: “When the face value
of the fulûs, that is, the copper money used in lieu of silver money,
is two hundred dirhams of silver or twenty mithqâls of gold, its
zakât is to be paid. One does not necessarily have to be using them
with the intention of trade, and its equivalent in gold, that is, gold
of the same value is given.”
[It is written in Arabic in Miftâh-us-sa’âda[1], “If the value of
copper coins termed fulûs amounts to two hundred dirhams of
silver when calculated with silver, it is necessary to give onefortieth of the silver equivalent of those fulûs as their zakât.”
Hence, the zakât of paper money is to be paid in gold. It cannot be
given in paper money.
The author ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ of the book Durr-ulmuntaqâ states at the end of the section about sale of sarf, (which
is dealt with in the final section of the thirty-first chapter:) “When
fulûs becomes currency it is like silver money. If it is not legal
tender it is like other commodities. It is permissible to buy
something in exchange for fulûs which one has in a certain number
or weight, e.g. one dirham of fulûs. Then one has to pay the fulûs
weighing one dirham. Actually, the fulûs itself is not money.
Consisting in pieces of metal coined so as to represent pieces of
silver dirhams, it is used for buying cheap things.”]
The nisâb of paper bills is calculated with the cheapest gold
coins on the market. For, they are bonds used in lieu of gold today
and being pieces of paper have little intrinsic value. Their nominal
or face values with respect to gold have been determined by
governments. That is, they are speculative and everchanging. For
their zakât, one fortieth of their gold coin equivalent or any kind
of gold of the same weight should be given. After handing the gold
to a poor person, one can buy the gold back from him with the
current market price and give him paper money to facilitate the
transaction for the poor person. It is written in the book Bukhârî
that (this method of) buying back (the zakât paid), and thereby
using (it) in one’s own transactions, is makrûh when the zakât is
paid in commercial property other than these two currencies, (i.e.
gold and silver.) Zakât paid in paper bills is not sahîh. It has to be
paid again. If the person (who had paid zakât in paper bills)
became poor afterwards, he makes qadâ by performing dawr[1]
with a small amount of gold. For many centuries Muslims have
paid their zakât in gold and silver. No Islamic scholar has ever said
that paper bills called fulûs or bonds could be paid as zakât. The
article which is said to be the fatwâ dated May 5 1338 (1922) is
false. It is written in ’Iqd-ul-Jeyyid[2] that it is not permissible in the
Shafi’î Madhhab. [See the last two pages of the fourth chapter of
the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss.]
While discoursing over sale of sarf, Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaih’ writes: “If the fulûs, that is, the copper coin, is legal
tender, it becomes money as per its face value. If its face value is
not valid it becomes valueless property.” And he says on the
thirteenth page: “Bonds have two kinds of value: the first one is
the value stated on it, which indicates the bond holder’s property
which he does not possess; the second value, the value of the paper
itself, is quite insignificant.” If one is in possession of one’s
property, the property is called ’Ayn. If one does not possess it, it
is termed Deyn. The value stated on a paper bill indicates the
property of zakât which is deyn. It is written in the twelfth page of
Durr-ul-mukhtâr: “It is not permissible to pay in deyn zakât of
property which is an ’ayn or which is a deyn due to be returned. It
is necessary to give it from property which is an ’ayn.” For
example, if a person donates with the intention of zakât five
dirhams of two hundred dirhams which a poor person owes him
[1] Please see the twenty-first chapter for dawr and isqât.
[2] Written by Shâh Waliyyullah Dahlawî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ alaih’,
(1114 [1702 A.D.] – 1176 [1762], Delhi.)
and takes back the rest, it is not acceptable (as the zakât of the
entire two hundred dirhams. He has paid zakât of those five
dirhams only.
It is wrong to say, “Paper bills cannot be compared to ordinary
documents prepared and signed up by a few people. They are valid
everywhere. They are like gold.” For, Ibni ’Âbidîn, in the subject
of oaths (yamîn), quotes Imâm-i-Abû Yûsuf as making the
following statement in his book Kharâj and ’Ushr, which he wrote
for Hârûn Rashîd: “It is harâm for the Caliph to take currency
other than gold and silver, e.g. the coins called Sutûqâ, from land
owners as their kharâj or ’ushr. For, though these are officially
marked coins and are to be accepted by everyone, they are not
gold but copper. It is harâm to accept any money which is not gold
or silver as zakât or kharâj.”
It is not taqwâ to pay zakât of paper money in gold. Taqwâ in
acts of worship means to strive so that everything will be
acceptable to all the imâms of a Madhhab and even to all (four)
Madhhabs. If it is claimed that the poor consent to paper money
and meet their needs with it, then (it should be noted that) it is
Allâhu ta’âlâ’s consent which is necessary, not the poor’s consent.
For example, Ibni ’Âbidîn says in the twelfth page: “If a poor
person owes to a rich person, who gives the bond of debt to the
former and says, ‘I have intended to pay you as zakât as much as
you owe me. So, accept this and take it as the equivalent for your
debt so that we will have paid our debts mutually,’ and if the poor
person says that he accepts it, Islam will not accept this and the rich
person will not have paid his zakât. For, zakât is not performed by
uttering empty words, by giving bonds of debt, or by (mutual)
consent; it is performed by handing the commodity. The rich
person has to pay his zakât to the poor person and the poor has to
pay his debt by returning it to the rich after taking it from the rich.
The same rule applies in the Madhâhib of Shâfi’î and Hanbalî. If
he cannot count on the poor person’s returning the money, he
shows a person whom he trusts to the poor person and says,
‘Appoint this person your deputy to take your zakât and to pay
your debt,’ and then gives zakât to the deputy, who returns it to the
rich person, thus paying the poor person’s debt.” The same is
written as such in the books Durr-i-yaktâ and Mizân-i-kubrâ.
Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ says in the same page:
“If a rich person, in order to give a poor person zakât of his ’ayn
property, that is, property which he possesses, [or of the deyn golds
which are the equivalents of the paper bills he has], gives the bonds
of debts which someone else owes to him [or the paper money to
buy gold in a bank or from a money-changer] to the poor person
and advises the poor person to take the commodities stated on the
bonds from the debtor [or to buy gold in a bank or from a moneychanger with the paper bills], when the poor person has taken the
commodities from the debtor, [that is, when he has obtained gold
by giving paper money], zakât of the rich person has been paid in
’ayn. Unless the poor person takes possession of the property
[gold], zakât will not have been given only by giving the bonds [or
the paper money]. For, when the poor person takes the property
[the gold], the bond, [i.e. the paper money] becomes property
[gold], and thereby zakât of an ’ayn [or a deyn] has been given in
’ayn.” As is seen, it is definitely necessary to pay zakât of paper
money in gold, or to have the poor person who is given paper
money to change it for gold in a bank or money changer’s office,
or to command the poor person to change it for gold while giving
him the paper money. If the poor person does not change the
paper money given for gold, the rich person will not have paid
zakât. For, it is the rich person’s duty to change it for gold, that is,
to pay zakât of property that is in the category of deyn, in ’ayn.
In short: Those who do not have commercial property have to
pay zakât of paper money in gold. It is always easy to find gold and
to exchange paper money for gold. For, the gold does not have to
be in coins. Bracelets, rings, or gold in any form can be given after
being weighed. And such things can be found in any jeweller’s
shop far and near. A rich person who is in a place where gold is not
available at all, if he does not have commercial property either,
appoints as his deputy a Muslim who is in a city where gold is
available and sends him paper money. And the deputy changes the
paper money for gold and gives the gold to the poor. He (the rich
person) can directly appoint the poor person his deputy as well. If
the poor person lives far away from the rich person or his deputy
and if gold is not available in the city where the poor person lives,
the gold can then be given to the poor person’s deputy appointed
by the poor person. In fact, advised by the poor person, the rich
person can give the gold which is his zakât to the poor person’s
creditor, thus freeing the poor person from his debt. In this case
the creditor has become the poor person’s deputy to take zakât.
But the poor person’s consent, that is, his appointing him the
deputy beforehand, is a prerequisite.
To say that zakât cannot be paid in paper money does not mean
to say that one should not pay zakât in paper money. It means that
the paper money should be given compatibly with Islam. To pay
the zakât of one’s commercial property in paper money
compatibly with Islam, one should do as the rich person would do
who wanted to pay debts concurrently with the poor person by
intending to give the poor person the amount of gold equivalent to
what the poor person owed him. And this is instructed as follows
in Ashbâh, in Radd-ul-muhtâr, and at the end of the sixth volume
of Hindiyya: The rich person borrows the gold equivalent for the
paper money which he wants to give the poor and which is less
than the amount of nisâb from his wife or from someone else.
Then he finds a pious poor person. If, however, he cannot trust
him, he says to him, “I shall pay zakât in paper money to a few
acquaintances of mine and to you. Our religion commands that
zakât should be paid in gold. In order to change the gold into
paper money easily, I want you to appoint so and so as your deputy
to take your zakât and to spend it as he likes. Thus you will have
helped me obey the Islamic rules. And you will earn thawâb for
this.” Thus a person whom the rich person trusts has been
appointed deputy. The deputy can passably be a rich person. He
gives the gold with the intention of zakât to the deputy in the poor
person’s absence. Hence, the zakât will have been given to the
poor. A few minutes after receiving the gold, the deputy sells them
for paper money to the rich person, and then gifts the paper bills
which he has received to the rich person. And the rich person
distributes these paper bills to that and other poor people, [to
schools where they teach Qur’ân al-kerîm, and to those Muslims
who serve Islam and make jihâd.] If he gives it to the rich its
thawâb will be less. If he does not give them to anybody or if he
gives them to people who do not have the qualifications prescribed
by Islam, such as those who do not perform namâz, he will escape
the torment for (not having paid) zakât, but he will not attain its
thawâb. If there is a poor person who he is sure will not take away
the gold, he pays his zakât directly to this poor person. A few
minutes after receiving the gold, the poor sells it to the rich who
has paid his zakât. He returns the paper money that he had taken
to the rich as a gift. He may as well give the gold back as a gift
instead of selling it. And the rich distributes the paper money of
the same value to the places we have described above. Then the
rich returns the gold to the lender. If the zakât he has to pay is
more than the nisâb he repeats the procedure. It produces more
thawâb to dispense the zakât in gold. By doing so others will be
shown and taught that zakât should be paid in gold. To pay the
zakât to the poor or to a deputy in gold and then to convert it into
paper money, is called Hîla-i shar’iyya. This technique, which is
inevitably applied for the purpose of paying zakât compatibly with
Islam’s prescription, yields much thawâb. The twenty-first and
fortieth chapters of the current fascicle inform us that it is
permissible to do hîla-i shar’iyya, and for the poor person to give
back (as a gift) the money. However, after zakât becomes fard, it
becomes harâm to practise this technique if it is intended to avoid
giving zakât; it is considered a fraud (Hîla-i-bâtila). To employ the
technique called hîla before zakât becomes fard is makrûh
according to Imâm Muhammad, whereas it is jâiz (permissible)
according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf. Please see the final part of the
fortieth chapter.
The two hundred and seventy-fifth âyat of Sûra Baqara
purports: “Allah destroys completely the income and property
earned through usury. He lets none of it remain. But He increases
the property for which zakât is paid.” People who do not know or
believe this promise of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s, try to avoid paying zakât.
Some people resort to hîla-i bâtila in order not to pay the poor and
the government their due. One of the hîla-i-bâtilas they have been
practising recently is converting their cash into landed property,
such as a house or a store or an urban or rural land plot, in order
to avoid attaining the nisâb of zakât, and then renting out their
purchases. This trickery absolves them from the obligation of
paying zakât, only to entangle them with another obligation, the
obligation of supporting their poor relatives. And this second
situation, in its turn, is something they are quite unaware of.
Consequently, they not only neglect the fard of paying nafaqa to
their poor relatives, but also deprive themselves of the thawâb
(that Allâhu ta’âlâ promises) for Sila–i-rahm (visiting one’s
relatives). In addition, they confine to heaps of stone and earth the
money that could otherwise be utilized in trade, industry, and for
the country’s economic development. It goes without saying that in
consequence they remain forever deprived of the abundance and
wealth that Allâhu ta’âlâ promises to the givers of zakât.
While discoursing about the kinds of oath, Ibni ’Âbidîn,
Mawqûfât and the authors of many other books ‘rahmatullâhi
’alaihim ajma’în’, write that “If a person swears: I shall pay today so
much silver which I owe to so and so, and if he in lieu gives zuyûf,[1]
or silver more than half of which is copper, he will have fulfilled his
[1] Please see the ninth paragraph of the twenty-ninth chapter.
oath. If he gives fulûs, that is, currency made of bronze, tin or
copper, [or paper money], or if the lender gifts or donates the loan
to his sworn debtor, the debtor will not have fulfilled his oath. For,
copper coins are not silver. The debtor has to return the money.
The sworn debt will not become cancelled with the lender’s word.”
Although zuyûf means coin with admixed silver, its copper content
is not more than half. Fulûs means metal coin other than gold and
silver. As is seen, even though the zuyûf is considered as silver in
the matter of oath, the fulûs, that is, currency made of copper, [or
paper money], is still not acceptable, that is, it is not permissible.
Lâ madhhabî and ignorant people say, “Paper money cannot be
compared to bonds written out between two people. It is the day’s
currency. It has become attested to universally. Today it has
become indispensable to give it as zakât.” They should not be
believed. Something cannot be universal, indispensable or
permissible only because we, common people, say that it is so. It is
mujtahids’ right and authority to have a say on this subject. There
is no mutlaq (absolute) mujtahid on earth today. For this reason, it
is not permissible for any Muslim to go beyond the limits of the
four Madhâhib. Mujtahids’ fatwâs, which cover even today’s
conditions, have been given above. While discoursing upon how to
listen to the khutba, Ibni ’Âbidîn wrote: “Traditions that began
during the time of the Sahâba ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhum ajma’în’
and mujtahids and which have been going on are to be taken as
proof-texts for halâl. Traditions introduced later cannot be dalîl
shar’î.” [This statement is a telling argument to support the fact that
it is not permissible to amplify the azân by using a loudspeaker.]
In the Ottoman Empire, the world’s greatest Muslim state,
paper money was first used in 1256 [1840 A.D.]. Later it was
abandoned. It was used in 1268 [1851] for the second time and in
1279 [1862] for the third time, each time being revoked some time
later. Its fourth monetization took place in 1294 [1877 A.D.] under
the entitlement of the Ottoman Bank, and from then on it has
been in use up till now, being changed ever and again. In none of
the books written or the fatwâs given during that long period has
it been said or stated that zakât could be paid in paper money.
People have always paid their zakât in gold and silver. It is written
in the forty-fourth page of ’Iqd-ul-jayyîd that it is not permissible
to pay zâkât in fulûs in the Madhhab of Shâfi’î, either.
Every Muslim should always be considering the amount of the
property of zakât he has and record the day it reached the amount
of nisâb. If the nisâb perishes before one year has passed from that
day, that is, if he no longer has any property more than he needs,
the day which he has recorded as the beginning date no longer has
value. If he obtains the nisâb amount again before the year is
over, it is fard for him to note down the date anew and to pay
zakât one year after that date, if the nisâb has not perished and is
still in his possession. This rule applies even if the nisâb perishes
at the end of the year, that is, after it has become fard (to pay
zakât). In this case zakât will be excused, and if he obtains the
nisâb amount of property again he will have to wait for another
year. For, it is not necessary in the Hanafî Madhhab to pay zakât
as soon as it becomes fard. If he dies before having paid it, it is not
to be paid from the property he has left behind. In the Madhâhib
of Shâfi’î and Mâlikî, it is fard to set aside the amount of zakât
and pay it as soon as it becomes fard [Mîzân-i-Sha’rânî][1]. If the
nisâb does not perish altogether but only becomes depleted
during the middle of the year and if it reaches the amount of nisâb
again by the end of the year, zakât becomes fard and now he gives
one-fortieth of what he still has. If the property that has fallen
down below the amount of nisâb during the year does not reach
the amount of nisâb again by the end of the year, zakât does not
become fard. If his property equals the amount of nisâb after that,
he has to wait for one year from that day on. If after the zakât has
become fard his property does not perish (for justifiable reasons)
but if he spends or wastes it himself or goes into debt, zakât will
not be excused. If he has lent the property or given it to someone
as ’âriyat (for temporary use) and cannot take it back, the
property has perished (for justifiable reasons). He has not
destroyed it himself. It is makrûh according to the unanimity (of
the ’Ulamâ) to waste one’s property after zakât has become fard
in order not to pay zakât. And according to Imâm-i-Muhammad,
also before the zakât has become fard, it is makrûh to seek for
ways so that it will not be fard. Please see the fortieth chapter of
the current fascicle, (and please see the thirty-seventh chapter for
’âriyat.)
If you have not mixed commodities of zakât obtained by harâm
means with your own property, you do not include them in the
nisâb. For, they are not your own property. It is fard for you to
return them to their owners or (their owners’) inheritors, or to give
them as alms to the poor if you cannot find anyone of them. If you
[1] Mîzân-ul-kubrâ, written by ’Abd-ul-Wahhâb Sha’rânî ‘rahmatullâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (d. 973 [1565 A.D.].)
have mixed them, the case is the same if you can separate them. If
you cannot separate them, you pay this debt to the owners from
your halâl zakât property. You keep this zakât property until the
owners are found. You do not pay zakât for them or for the
mixture, since they are not fully your property. If you have zakât
property amounting to nisâb other than the two mentioned above,
you should pay zakât both for this nisâb and for the mixed
property. After payment as well, zakât becomes fard for the entire
khabîth property, and this khabîth property becomes your property
in its full sense, it being permissible for you to use it, and you may
add it to your calculation of nisâb. In case someone else is given this
property, it is permissible for him to accept it. In this case it
becomes his mulk-i-khabîth. However, unless the khabîth property
is compensated for, you have no right to use it. You cannot give it
to someone else. You cannot give it as alms to the poor, either. You
cannot include it in the nisâb of zakât. Compensation means to
return a similar commodity. If its like is not avaliable, the value that
was current on the day when it was obtained is to be paid to the
owners. Compensation should be made out of your halâl zakât
property, not out of the mixture. It would be a worse sin to acquire
mixed khabîth property in order to avoid paying zakât than to
simply not pay zakât at all. If the owners are unknown, the unmixed
amount, and if it is mixed altogether, all that khabîth property, is to
be given as alms to the poor. For, it exists as harâm property in
every part of this mixture. Even if harâm commodities purchased
from several people are mixed together, all of them become one’s
own khabîth property. But it is wâjib to give them back to their
original owners; if they are not known, then as alms to the poor. If
it is wâjib to dispense some property as alms, its zakât cannot be
paid. Even if any commodity or money acquired through Fâsid
Bey’[1] is not mixed with one’s own money that property becomes
mulk-i-khabîth. It is written in the book, Bezzâziyya[2]: “If a person,
while giving alms from mixed khabîth property (which it is wâjib to
give as alms), makes an intention of paying zakât for his halâl
property, he will have given both the zakât and the alms
[1] Bey’ me ans bar te ring, bu ying or sel ling. The bu si ness of bu ying and
sel ling has to be do ne as prescribed by Is lam. Fâ sid bey’ is a kind of
purc ha se do ne in a way not jus ti fi ed by Is lam. The bu si ness of bu ying
and sel ling is explained in full de ta il in the twenty-ninth chapter.
[2] A book of fatwâ written by Ibn-ul-Bezzâz Muhammad bin
Muhammad Kerderî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (d. 827 [1424
A.D.].)
simultaneously.” Hence, it is permissible to pay the zakât of one’s
halâl property out of harâm property.
Endless Bliss
