The Book of Zakah

Ali ibn Hujr reported: Yazid ibn Harun narrated to us: Humayd narrated to us, from al-Hasan, that Ibn Abbas preached in Basra and said: Pay the zakah of your fast. The people began looking at one another. He said: Those of you here who are from Madinah, go to your brothers and teach them, for they do not know. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prescribed the sadaqat al-fitr for the young and old, free and enslaved, male and female: half a sa of wheat, or one sa of dates or barley. Al-Hasan said: Ali said, As Allah has granted abundance, then be generous: give one sa of wheat or something else.

Musa ibn Abd al-Rahman reported: Husayn narrated to us, from Zaidah, who said: Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Rawwad narrated to us, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar, who said: In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, people used to give the sadaqat al-fitr as one sa of barley, dates, sult, or raisins.

Amr ibn Ali reported: Yahya narrated to us: Dawud ibn Qays narrated to us: Iyad narrated to us, from Abu Saeed al-Khudri, who said: In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we used to give one sa of barley, dates, raisins, or aqit. We continued doing so until the time of Muawiyah, who said: I think two mudd of Syrian wheat equal one sa of barley.

Isa ibn Hammad reported: al-Layth informed us, from Yazid, from Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah ibn Uthman, that Iyad ibn Abd Allah ibn Sad related to him that Abu Saeed al-Khudri said: In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we used to give one sa of dates, or one sa of barley, or one sa of aqit; we did not give anything else.

Amr ibn Zurarah reported: al-Qasim—meaning Ibn Malik—informed us, from al-Juayd: I heard al-Saib ibn Yazid say: In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the sa measured one mudd and one third by your mudd today, and it has since been increased. Abu Abd al-Rahman said: Ziyad ibn Ayyub also related this to me.

Ahmad ibn Sulayman reported: Abu Nuaym narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Hanzalah, from Tawus, from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: The measure is the measure of the people of Madinah, and the weight is the weight of the people of Makkah.

Muhammad ibn Madan ibn Isa reported: al-Hasan narrated to us: Zuhayr narrated to us: Musa narrated to us. [A second chain:] Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Bazii reported: al-Fudayl narrated to us: Musa narrated to us, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered the sadaqat al-fitr to be paid before the people went out to the prayer. Ibn Bazii said: [The wording is] zakat al-fitr.

Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak reported: Waki narrated to us: Zakariyya ibn Ishaq—who was reliable—narrated to us, from Yahya ibn Abd Allah ibn Sayfi, from Abu Mabadh, from Ibn Abbas, that the Prophet ﷺ sent Muadh ibn Jabal to Yemen and said: You are coming to a people who are People of the Book. Invite them to bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they obey you in that, inform them that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has made five prayers obligatory for them in every day and night. If they obey you in that, inform them that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has made charity obligatory on their wealth, taken from their rich and given to their poor. If they obey you in that, beware of taking the finest of their property, and beware of the supplication of the wronged, for there is no barrier between it and Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

Imran ibn Bakkar reported: Ali ibn Ayyash narrated to us: Shuayb narrated to us: Abu al-Zinad narrated to me from what Abd al-Rahman al-Araj related to him, from what he said he heard Abu Hurayrah report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: A man said: I will surely give charity. He went out with his charity and placed it in the hand of a thief. In the morning people were talking: Charity was given to a thief. He said: O Allah, to You belongs praise for a thief. I will surely give charity. He went out with his charity and placed it in the hand of a prostitute. In the morning people were talking: Charity was given to a prostitute. He said: O Allah, to You belongs praise for a prostitute. I will surely give charity. He went out with his charity and placed it in the hand of a rich man. In the morning people were talking: Charity was given to a rich man. He said: O Allah, to You belongs praise for a prostitute, a thief, and a rich man. Then someone came to him and said: As for your charity, it has been accepted. As for the prostitute, perhaps she will use it to refrain from her fornication; perhaps the thief will use it to refrain from his theft; and perhaps the rich man will take heed and spend from what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has given him.

Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Dhari reported: Yazid—meaning Ibn Zuray—narrated to us: Shuubah narrated to us. Ismail ibn Masud also informed us: Bishr—meaning Ibn al-Mufaddal—narrated to us: Shuubah narrated to us; this is Bishr wording, from Qatadah, from Abu al-Malih, from his father, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, does not accept prayer without purification, nor charity taken from illicitly acquired spoils.

Qutaybah reported: al-Layth narrated to us, from Saeed ibn Abi Saeed, from Saeed ibn Yasar, who heard Abu Hurayrah say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: No one gives charity from good, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, accepts only what is good, but the Most Merciful, Mighty and Majestic, takes it in His right hand—even if it is a single date—and it grows in the palm of the Most Merciful until it becomes greater than a mountain, just as one of you raises his young horse or camel calf.

Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Hakam reported from Hajjaj, who said: Ibn Jurayj informed me: Uthman ibn Abi Sulayman narrated to me, from Ali al-Azdi, from Ubayd ibn Umayr, from Abd Allah ibn Hubshi al-Khathami, that the Prophet ﷺ was asked: Which deeds are best? He said: Faith without doubt, jihad without misappropriation, and an accepted Hajj. He was asked: Which prayer is best? He said: Prolonged standing in prayer. He was asked: Which charity is best? He said: The effort of one who has little. He was asked: Which emigration is best? He said: One who abandons what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has forbidden. He was asked: Which jihad is best? He said: One who strives against the polytheists with his wealth and himself. He was asked: Which killing is most noble? He said: One whose blood is shed and whose horse is hamstrung.

Qutaybah reported: al-Layth narrated to us, from Ibn Ajlan, from Saeed ibn Abi Saeed and al-Qaqa, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: One dirham surpassed one hundred thousand dirhams. They said: How so? He said: A man had two dirhams and gave one of them in charity, while another man went to his considerable wealth, took out one hundred thousand dirhams, and gave them in charity.

Ubayd Allah ibn Saeed reported: Safwan ibn Isa narrated to us: Ibn Ajlan narrated to us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: One dirham surpassed one hundred thousand. They said: O Messenger of Allah, how so? He said: A man had two dirhams, took one of them, and gave it in charity; and another man had much wealth, took one hundred thousand from the breadth of his wealth, and gave it in charity.

Al-Husayn ibn Hurayth reported: al-Fadl ibn Musa informed us, from al-Husayn, from Mansur, from Shaqiq, from Abu Masud, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to command us to give charity. One of us would have nothing to give, so he would go to the market, carry goods on his back, and bring a mudd, which he would give to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Today I know a man who has one hundred thousand, though at that time he did not have even a dirham.

Bishr ibn Khalid reported: Ghundar narrated to us, from Shuubah, from Sulayman, from Abu Wail, from Abu Masud, who said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded us to give charity, Abu Aqil gave half a sa, and another person came with something more than that. The hypocrites said: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has no need of this person charity, and the other did that only to show off. Then this verse was revealed: Those who criticize the willing contributors among the believers in charity, and those who find nothing but their own effort...

Qutaybah reported: Sufyan narrated to us, from al-Zuhri, who said: Saeed and Urwah informed me that they heard Hakim ibn Hizam say: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he gave me something. Then I asked him again, and he gave me something. Then I asked him again, and he gave me something. Then he said: This wealth is fresh and sweet. Whoever takes it with contentment will be blessed in it, but whoever takes it with an eager, covetous eye will not be blessed in it. He is like one who eats but is never satisfied. The upper hand is better than the lower hand.

Yusuf ibn Isa reported: al-Fadl ibn Musa informed us: Yazid—meaning Ibn Ziyad ibn Abi al-Jad—narrated to us, from Jami ibn Shaddad, from Tariq al-Muharibi, who said: We came to Madinah and found the Messenger of Allah ﷺ standing on the pulpit, addressing the people. He was saying: The giver upper hand is the higher one. Begin with those you support: your mother and father, your sister and brother, then the next closest, and the next closest. This is an abbreviated report.

Qutaybah reported from Malik, from Nafi, from Abd Allah ibn Umar, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while speaking about charity and refraining from asking, said: The upper hand is better than the lower hand. The upper hand is the one that spends, and the lower hand is the one that asks.

Qutaybah reported: Bakr narrated to us, from Ibn Ajlan, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said: The best charity is what is given from surplus means. The upper hand is better than the lower hand, and begin with those you support.