35 Points on Zakāh al-Fiṭr from Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn’s Ash-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ

Thirty-five points from the chapter on zakāh al-fiṭr in Ash-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ by Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH/2001 CE).

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1. It is called “zakāh” because it causes increase and growth. It grows character because it places a person among the ranks of the generous. It increases wealth because anything you spend seeking Allah’s face increases your wealth. It increases your reward, since the Prophet  said,
   

   إِنَّكَ لَنْ تُنْفِقَ نَفَقَةً تَبْتَغِي بِهَا وَجْهَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا أُجِرْتَ عَلَيْهَا حَتَّى مَا تَجْعَلُ فِي فَمِ امْرَأَتِكَ

   “Any expenditure you make seeking only Allah’s Face will be rewarded, even what you place in your wife’s mouth.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 56; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1628.]

   ¹

2. The wisdom of zakāh al-fiṭr is stated in the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās,
   

   فَرَضَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم زَكَاةَ الْفِطْرِ طُهْرَةً لِلصَّائِمِ مِنَ اللَّغْوِ وَالرَّفَثِ

   “The Messenger of Allah obligated zakāh al-fiṭr as a purification for the fasting person from idle and obscene speech.” [Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 1609, excerpt.]

   ² Also, gratitude for being able to complete the month, and as a means of food for the needy on this day that is a day of joy and festivities. It is right that they be given this zakāh so that they can share in the joy and celebrations with the well-off.

3. The zakāh is an obligation for every Muslim, due to the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās. (See point number 2).
4. The zakāh is not an obligation for non-Muslims, due to the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar,
   

   فَرَضَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم زَكَاةَ الْفِطْرِ صَاعًا مِنْ تَمْرٍ، أَوْ صَاعًا مِنْ شَعِيرٍ عَلَى الْعَبْدِ وَالْحُرِّ، وَالذَّكَرِ وَالأُنْثَى، وَالصَّغِيرِ وَالْكَبِيرِ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ

   “The Messenger of Allah mandated zakāh al-fiṭr as a ṣāʿ of dates or barley to be paid on every Muslim male and female, free person or slave, young or old.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1503, excerpt.]

   ³ Another reason is that zakāh is a purifier and an unbeliever cannot be purified except by becoming a Muslim.

5. Even if that unbeliever is owned as a slave by a Muslim, his zakāh is not obligatory.
6. The zakāh is obligatory for a person who owns more than the provision he needs for the night and day of ʿĪd.⁴
7. A person does not have to donate more than a ṣāʿ. If he possesses more than his provision for the night and day of ʿĪd but it is less than a ṣāʿ, he gives that amount, and he is not exempt. So, if he has half a ṣāʿ left after his daily provision, he must donate that half, because Allah says,

   فَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ مَا ٱسۡتَطَعۡتُمۡ

   “Save yourself from Allah’s punishment to the best of your ability.” [Q 64:16] (excerpt)

   ⁵

8. The amount he donates must be what remains after his and his family’s daily bread and his primary needs have been met. Primary needs are things that are required such as a pot for preparing dinner, a bowl for dates, a jug, and books for study. However, if it is a book he only uses once a year, it is not a primary need, especially if there are public libraries he may use. The same applies if there are other copies of the book available. A household’s needs are either essential, primary or complementary. Essential needs are things it cannot do without. Primary needs are things that it needs to function. The complementary are things the house does not need to function. Therefore, anything above the essential and primary needs must be donated.
9. The zakāh is obligatory for every Muslim, including the ones that do not fast, such as underage children and the elderly, the sick, new-born babies, and even women whose postnatal bleeding lasts the whole month.
10. Owing a debt does not exempt a person from paying the zakāh unless he cannot afford to pay the zakāh after paying the debt. This is because the debt must be paid when sought and it is payable, due to the Prophet’s  words,
    

    مَطْلُ الْغَنِيِّ ظُلْمٌ

    “It is wrong for a person to delay paying his debt if he can afford to pay it.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2287; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1564, excerpt.]

    ⁶ Hence, if he has to pay his debt, he must pay and he becomes exempt from the zakāh if that is all he has.

11. Everyone is obliged to pay for himself. Thus, a man must pay for himself, his wife must pay for herself, a father must pay for himself, and the daughter must pay for herself, and so on. A person does not have to pay for the people for whom he is financially responsible such as his wife and his relatives, due to the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar,
    

    فَرَضَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم زَكَاةَ الْفِطْرِ صَاعًا مِنْ تَمْرٍ، أَوْ صَاعًا مِنْ شَعِيرٍ عَلَى الْعَبْدِ وَالْحُرِّ، وَالذَّكَرِ وَالأُنْثَى، وَالصَّغِيرِ وَالْكَبِيرِ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ

    “The Messenger of Allah made zakāh al-fiṭr an obligation of a ṣāʿ of dates or barley for every Muslim, whether male or female, whether free or a slave, and whether young or old.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1503, excerpt.]

    The default rule for obligations is that they are fulfilled by every person individually and not by someone else. Another reason is Allah’s statement,

    وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٞ وِزۡرَ أُخۡرَىٰ

    “No soul shall bear the burden of another.” [Q 6:164] (excerpt)

    ⁷ and if a person were obliged to pay for himself as well as the people he takes care of, one soul would be bearing the burden of another.⁸ However, there is nothing wrong with his donating their share with their approval, in the same way there is nothing wrong with paying another’s debt with his approval. Also, it is permissible to pay zakāh on behalf of another. Consequently, if these people cannot afford the zakāh al-fiṭr, he incurs a sin (by not paying their share), if we say that he is obliged to pay for them. On the other hand, if we go with the second opinion, he does not incur a sin, and they do not either because they do not have. We might say, nevertheless, that the parents of young children who have no possessions are obliged to pay their share, because this is what the Companions were known to do.

12. One is not obliged to pay on behalf of his employees unless it is part of their salary package.
13. One must pay on behalf of his (Muslim) slave due to the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah  said,
    

    لَيْسَ فِي الْعَبْدِ صَدَقَةٌ إِلاَّ صَدَقَةُ الْفِطْرِ

    “There is no zakāh payable on a slave except zakāh al-fiṭr.” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 982d.]

    ⁹

14. Paying on behalf of an unborn child is encouraged, but only if the soul has been breathed into it, i.e. it is more than four months old, before which it is not considered to be alive since the soul is only breathed into it after that time, according to the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd. He said,
    

    حَدَّثَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَهُوَ الصَّادِقُ الْمَصْدُوقُ إِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ يُجْمَعُ خَلْقُهُ فِي بَطْنِ أُمِّهِ أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ فِي ذَلِكَ عَلَقَةً مِثْلَ ذَلِكَ ثُمَّ يَكُونُ فِي ذَلِكَ مُضْغَةً مِثْلَ ذَلِكَ ثُمَّ يُرْسَلُ الْمَلَكُ فَيَنْفُخُ فِيهِ الرُّوحَ وَيُؤْمَرُ بِأَرْبَعِ كَلِمَاتٍ بِكَتْبِ رِزْقِهِ وَأَجَلِهِ وَعَمَلِهِ وَشَقِيٌّ أَوْ سَعِيدٌ

    “The Messenger of Allah informed us, and he is the truthful one given the truth: ‘The creation of each of you is brought together in his mother’s womb for forty days, then he becomes a blood clot for a similar period, then a morsel of flesh for a similar period. After that, the angel is sent to him and breathes the soul into him, and is commanded to write four things: his provision, his lifespan, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or happy.’” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2643a, excerpt.]

    This is why scholars say that a miscarried foetus before four months is neither ritually washed, nor shrouded, nor prayed over, but over four months it is. The evidence for encouraging donations on behalf of unborn children is the report that ʿUthmān paid on behalf of an unborn child, otherwise there is no sunnah for it attributed to the Messenger . However, we should know that ʿUthmān is one of the Four caliphs we have been ordered to follow, and if a sunnah of any one of them is not invalidated by a sunnah of the Prophet , that sunnah is law that must be followed. This is according to the Prophet  who said,

    فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الْمَهْدِيِّينَ الرَّاشِدِينَ

    “You must follow my Sunnah, as well as the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs.” [Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4607, excerpt; Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, no. 2676.]

    ¹⁰ And this is how we know that the first adhān on Jumuʿah is not an innovation as some misguided people say.

15. For a donation on someone else’s behalf to be valid, it must have their approval, if that person is not someone for whom he is obliged to pay in the first place.
16. zakāh al-fiṭr becomes obligatory as soon as the sun sets on the night of ʿĪd.¹¹
17. We know the night of ʿĪd by the occurrence of one of two things: the first is if we have fasted the complete thirty days of Ramaḍān, the night of ʿĪd is after sunset on that day. The second is by sighting the new moon on the thirtieth night¹², in which case [what would have been] the thirtieth night would be the night of ʿĪd.
18. zakāh al-fiṭr is not obligatory for anyone who becomes a Muslim after sunset on the last day of Ramaḍān because, at the time it became obligatory, he was not one of the people for whom it was mandated.
19. A person who became the owner of a slave after sunset does not have to pay the slave’s zakāh. Instead, his previous owner must pay because he owned him at the time it became an obligation.
20. If a man marries a woman after sunset on the night of ʿĪd, he does not have to pay her zakāh because she was not his wife at the time the obligation became set. This is according to some of those who see that the husband must pay the wife’s zakāh¹³.
21. If a man fathers a child after sunset on the night of ʿĪd, he does not have to pay zakāh on his behalf, though he is encouraged to.
22. If a person was given a number of donations on the morning of ʿĪd such that he came to possess more than his daily bread, he does not have to pay because the time the obligation was set was at sunset the night before. If the donations were given to him during the last days of Ramaḍān, he would have had to pay.
23. One may issue the zakāh no more than two days before ʿĪd¹⁴. This is an allowance to do something before the reason exists (which is normally impermissible). The reason is that the Companions used to do this, which makes it a valid act. So, zakāh issued on the twenty-seventh in a thirty-day month is invalid, for example, it being like a person performing one of the daily ritual prayers before its time.
24. The best time to issue it is before the prayer on the day of ʿĪd, in accordance with the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar,
    

    وَأَمَرَ بِهَا أَنْ تُؤَدَّى قَبْلَ خُرُوجِ النَّاسِ إِلَى الصَّلاَةِ

    “He commanded that it be paid before people go out to pray.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1503, excerpt.]

    ¹⁵ Also, the purpose of zakāh is to rid the poor of the need to beg from others, in order for them to be able to take part in the celebrations and festivities with those better off.

25. The prayer of ʿĪd should be delayed to give people time to issue the zakāh before the prayer.
26. The donation must reach the recipient or the recipient’s representative before the prayer. The recipient may make the donor his representative¹⁶ (i.e. he asks the donor to hold onto the donation for him until a scheduled time).
27. It is not enough for a donor to say to the recipient, “I have some zakāh for you,” until the recipient actually receives the donation or makes the donor his representative (see 26).
28. The correct opinion is that it is not permissible to pay zakāh al-fiṭr after the ʿĪd prayer, and that it does not count if it is issued after the prayer.¹⁷ The evidence for this is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar,
    

    وَأَمَرَ بِهَا أَنْ تُؤَدَّى قَبْلَ خُرُوجِ النَّاسِ إِلَى الصَّلاَةِ

    “He commanded that it should be issued before people leave for the prayer.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1503, excerpt.]

    Thus, in the event that he delays it until the people have completed the prayer, he has done something for which there is no mandate, and as such it is invalidated, because the Prophet  said,

    مَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلاً لَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ أَمْرُنَا فَهُوَ رَدٌّ

    “If anyone does an action that we have not sanctioned, it will be rejected.” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1718b.]

    ¹⁸

29. If a person has a valid excuse for not issuing his zakāh before the prayer, he may issue it afterwards without blame. This is analogous to the case of the one who misses a prayer due to oversleeping or absence of mind. The Prophet  said,
    

    مَنْ نَسِيَ صَلاَةً أَوْ نَامَ عَنْهَا فَكَفَّارَتُهَا أَنْ يُصَلِّيَهَا إِذَا ذَكَرَهَا

    “Anyone who forgets a prayer or sleeps through it, its expiation is to pray it when he remembers.” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 684c.]

    ¹⁹

30. The safest thing for a person who failed to issue the zakāh on time due to a valid excuse is to issue it anyway, even if it is several days after ʿĪd.
31. zakāh al-fiṭr should be paid out in one’s country of residence. It is wrong to send it somewhere else. The same applies to ritual sacrifices. This is because these are features of the Islamic identity that should be present in every household and sending money to countries far away obscures these features in that household.
32. The amount to be given as zakāh is a ṣāʿ, which is the unit of volume and dry measure used by the Prophet . The evidence is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar,
    

    فَرَضَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم زَكَاةَ الْفِطْرِ صَاعًا مِنْ تَمْرٍ، أَوْ صَاعًا مِنْ شَعِيرٍ

    “The Messenger of Allah stipulated zakāh al-fiṭr as a ṣāʿ of dates or a ṣāʿ of barley.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1503, excerpt.]

    The ṣāʿ mentioned here and in other narrations is the ṣāʿ used by the Prophet , and not any other ṣāʿ, since there are different versions. This is by scholarly consensus.

33. Due to changing times, the ṣāʿ, originally a unit of volume, has been converted into its equivalent in mass in order to preserve it. Since volumes of different items differ in mass according to how heavy or light the item is, scholars have taken good quality dense wheat as a standard, which is equivalent in its weight to the lentil. A ṣāʿ of this type of wheat has been found to be 2.04 kg. If one wishes to know a Prophetic ṣāʿ, they should measure 2.04 kg of good quality wheat and pour it into a container. The volume the wheat takes up is a Prophetic ṣāʿ.
34. As long as the food donated is one of the staples of the land, it is valid, even if it is not one of the foodstuffs mentioned in the narrations. Food like bread (especially dry), meat (especially dry), and pasta may be donated. Some of these, such as meat, must be donated by weight instead of volume.
35. One may give a single donation to many people, or multiple donations to a single person. With zakāh al-fiṭr, the amount of food to be given is stipulated but not the amount of those who give the stipulated amount, nor the amount of people to whom the stipulated amount of food should be given. Thus, the amount stipulated for donations is a ṣāʿ, whether one gives it to one person or a group, or a group gives it to one person, or one person gives it to a single person, or a group gives it to another group. This is by scholarly consensus.

Notes

References

Al-Qurʾān, [Q 6:164], [Q 64:16].

Al-Albānī, Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl, vol. 3, p. 332.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Al-Musnad, vol. 4, p. 127.

Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, nos. 56, 597, 1503, 2287.

Abū Dāwūd, As-Sunan, nos. 1609, 4607.

Ibn Mājah, As-Sunan, nos. 42, 1827.

Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ (d. 1421 AH/2001 CE), Ash-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, chapter on zakāh al-fiṭr. The original translated PDF.

Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, nos. 684, 982, 984, 986, 1564, 1628, 1718, 2643.

At-Tirmidhī, Al-Jāmiʿ, no. 2676.

Writer / translator

Nūr ad-Dīn an-Nīgerī

studied in Dammāj, Yemen, for a number of years, where he memorised the Qur’an and studied the Arabic language to a high level, benefiting from the students of Shaykh Muqbil. He has served in imām positions at Masjid Dār us-Sunnah and Markaz as-Sunnah. @naijiriyy

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