The Book of Zakah

Ubaydullah ibn Fadalah ibn Ibrahim al-Nasai reported: Shurayh ibn al-Numan informed us: Hammad ibn Salamah narrated to us: I took this document from Thumamah ibn Abdullah ibn Anas ibn Malik, from Anas ibn Malik, that Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, wrote to him: These are the prescribed alms that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prescribed for the Muslims, as Allah commanded His Messenger ﷺ. Whoever among the Muslims is asked for them according to their due should give them; whoever is asked for more than that should not give more. For fewer than twenty-five camels, one sheep is due for every five camels. At twenty-five, a one-year-old female camel (bint makhad) is due, up to thirty-five; if no bint makhad is available, then a male camel in its second year (ibn labun). At thirty-six, a female camel in its second year (bint labun) is due, up to forty-five. At forty-six, a three-year-old female camel (hiqqah), ready to be covered by a breeding male, is due, up to sixty. At sixty-one, a four-year-old female camel (jadha ah) is due, up to seventy-five. At seventy-six, two bint labun are due, up to ninety. At ninety-one, two hiqqah are due, up to one hundred and twenty. Above one hundred and twenty, one bint labun is due for every forty and one hiqqah for every fifty.

When the required ages of camels differ in the alms schedule: if a person owes a jadha ah but does not have one and has a hiqqah, the hiqqah is accepted, along with two sheep if readily available or twenty dirhams. If a person owes a hiqqah but does not have one and has a jadha ah, it is accepted, and the collector gives him twenty dirhams or two sheep. If a person owes a hiqqah but does not have one and has a bint labun, it is accepted, along with two sheep if readily available or twenty dirhams. If a person owes a bint labun but has only a hiqqah, it is accepted, and the collector gives him twenty dirhams or two sheep. If a person owes a bint labun and has a bint makhad, it is accepted, along with two sheep if readily available or twenty dirhams. If a person owes a bint makhad but has only a male ibn labun, it is accepted with nothing additional. Whoever has only four camels owes nothing, unless the owner chooses to give.

For the alms on freely grazing sheep: at forty, one sheep is due, up to one hundred and twenty. If the flock increases by one, two sheep are due, up to two hundred. If it increases by one more, three sheep are due, up to three hundred. If it increases again, one sheep is due for every hundred. No old or defective sheep, nor a male goat from the flock, is to be taken as alms unless the collector chooses. Separate flocks are not to be combined, nor a combined flock divided, to avoid the alms. Two partners in a jointly held flock settle the due equally between themselves. If a man has a freely grazing flock of thirty-nine sheep, nothing is due unless the owner chooses to give. On silver, one quarter of one tenth is due; if the wealth is only one hundred and ninety dirhams, nothing is due unless the owner chooses to give.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak reported: Waki narrated to us: Al-Amash narrated to us, from al-Marur ibn Suwayd, from Abu Dharr, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: No owner of camels, cattle, or sheep who fails to pay their zakah will avoid their coming on the Day of Resurrection larger and fatter than they ever were. They will gore him with their horns and trample him with their hooves. Whenever the last of them has passed, the first will be brought back over him, until judgment is passed among the people.

Hannad ibn al-Sari reported from Hushaym, from Hilal ibn Khabbab, from Maysarah Abu Salih, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, who said: The Prophet zakah collector came to us, so I went to him and sat with him. I heard him say: My instructions are that we do not take a nursing animal, nor combine what is separate, nor divide what is combined. A man came to him with a large-humped she-camel. He said: Take it. But he refused.

Harun ibn Zayd ibn Yazid—meaning Ibn Abi al-Zarqa—reported: My father narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Asim ibn Kulayb, from his father, from Wa il ibn Hujr, that the Prophet ﷺ sent a zakah collector. He came to a man, who brought him a young camel described as makhlul. The Prophet ﷺ said: We sent a collector appointed by Allah and His Messenger, and so-and-so gave him a young camel described as makhlul. O Allah, do not bless him or his camels. This reached the man, and he came with a beautiful she-camel, saying: I repent to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and to His Messenger ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said: O Allah, bless him and his camels.

Amr ibn Yazid reported: Bahz ibn Asad narrated to us: Shubah said: Amr ibn Murrah informed me that he heard Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa say: When people brought their alms to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he would say: O Allah, bless the family of so-and-so. My father brought his alms to him, and he said: O Allah, bless the family of Abu Awfa.

Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna and Muhammad ibn Bashshar reported—the wording is his: Both said: Yahya narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Abi Ismail, from Abd al-Rahman ibn Hilal. He said: Jarir said: Some Bedouins came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: Messenger of Allah, people from among your zakah collectors come to us and treat us unjustly. He said: Satisfy your collectors. They said: Even if they act unjustly? He said: Satisfy your collectors. They said again: Even if they act unjustly? He said: Satisfy your collectors. Jarir said: Ever since I heard this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, no collector has departed from me except satisfied.

Ziyad ibn Ayyub reported: Ismail—he is Ibn Ulayyah—informed us: Dawud informed us, from al-Shabi, who said: Jarir said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: When the zakah collector comes to you, let him depart while pleased with you.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak reported: Waki narrated to us: Zakariyya ibn Ishaq narrated to us, from Amr ibn Abi Sufyan, from Muslim ibn Thafannah, who said: Ibn Alqamah appointed my father over the administration of his people and ordered him to collect their alms. My father sent me to a group among them to bring him their alms. I set out until I came to an elderly man named Sa r and said: My father sent me to you so that you would pay the alms due on your sheep. He said: Nephew, what sort do you take? I said: We select them so carefully that we even measure the sheep udders.

He said: Nephew, let me tell you: During the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I was in one of these valleys with my sheep. Two men came to me on a camel and said: We are the messengers of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to you, so that you pay the alms due on your sheep. I asked: What is due from me? They said: One sheep. I went to a sheep whose place I knew, full of milk and fat, and brought it out to them. He said: This is a shafi . A shafi is a ha il, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade us to take a shafi .

He said: Then I went to a young she-goat described as mu tata; mu tata is one that has never given birth, but whose time to give birth has arrived. I brought it out to them. They said: Hand it to us. I lifted it up to them, and they placed it with them on their camel and then departed.

Harun ibn Abdullah reported: Rawh narrated to us: Zakariyya ibn Ishaq narrated to us: Amr ibn Abi Sufyan narrated to me: Muslim ibn Thafannah narrated to me that Ibn Alqamah appointed his father to collect the alms from his people, and he related the rest of the hadith.

Imran ibn Bakkar reported: Ali ibn Ayyash narrated to us: Shuaib narrated to us: Abu al-Zinad related to me what Abd al-Rahman al-Araj had told him, from what he mentioned hearing Abu Hurairah narrate. He said: Umar said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered the payment of alms, and it was said that Ibn Jamil, Khalid ibn al-Walid, and al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib had withheld it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: What does Ibn Jamil resent, except that he was poor and Allah enriched him? As for Khalid ibn al-Walid, you are wronging Khalid: he has kept his coats of mail and war equipment in the cause of Allah. As for al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, its payment is due from him, and an equal amount along with it.

Ahmad ibn Hafs reported: My father narrated to me: Ibrahim ibn Tahman narrated to me, from Musa, who said: Abu al-Zinad narrated to me, from Abd al-Rahman, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered alms exactly like that.

Amr ibn Mansur and Mahmud ibn Ghaylan reported: Abu Nuaym narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Ibrahim ibn Maysarah, from Uthman ibn Abdullah ibn al-Aswad, from Abdullah ibn Hilal al-Thaqafi, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: After you, I was nearly killed over a young she-goat or sheep from the alms. He said: Had it not been given to the poor among the Emigrants, I would not have taken it.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak reported: Waki narrated to us, from Shubah and Sufyan, from Abdullah ibn Dinar, from Sulayman ibn Yasar, from Arak ibn Malik, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: A Muslim owes no zakah on his slave or his horse.

Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Harb al-Marwazi reported: Muhrez ibn al-Waddah narrated to us, from Ismail—he is Ibn Umayyah—from Makhul, from Arak ibn Malik, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: A Muslim man owes no zakah on his slave or his horse.

Muhammad ibn Mansur reported: Sufyan narrated to us: Ayyub ibn Musa narrated to us, from Makhul, from Sulayman ibn Yasar, from Arak ibn Malik, from Abu Hurairah—attributing it to the Prophet ﷺ—who said: A Muslim owes no zakah on his slave or his horse.

Ubaydullah ibn Said reported: Yahya narrated to us, from Khuthaym, who said: My father narrated to us, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: A man owes no zakah on his horse or his slave.

Muhammad ibn Salamah and al-Harith ibn Miskin reported—the text was read to him while I listened, and this is his wording—from Ibn al-Qasim, who said: Malik narrated to me, from Abdullah ibn Dinar, from Sulayman ibn Yasar, from Arak ibn Malik, from Abu Hurairah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: A Muslim owes no zakah on his slave or his horse.

Qutaybah reported: Hammad narrated to us, from Khuthaym ibn Arak ibn Malik, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, that the Prophet ﷺ said: A Muslim owes no zakah on his male slave or his horse.

Yahya ibn Habib ibn Arabi reported from Hammad, who said: Yahya—he is Ibn Said—narrated to us, from Amr ibn Yahya, from his father, from Abu Said al-Khudri, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: No zakah is due on less than five awaq; no zakah is due on fewer than five camels; and no zakah is due on less than five awsuq.

Muhammad ibn Salamah reported: Ibn al-Qasim informed us, from Malik, who said: Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Sa sa ah al-Mazini narrated to me, from his father, from Abu Said al-Khudri, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: No zakah is due on less than five awsuq of dates; no zakah is due on less than five awaq of silver; and no zakah is due on fewer than five camels.