“Whatever comes without its limit having been specified by the Sacred Law—such as a hirz (a secure place for property)—is to be determined by custom.” (1)

Whatever has not been assigned a defined limit in the Sacred Law is referred back to customary practice. Thus, they are to feed people with the food commonly eaten in their time; for us today, that is rice.

His statement, “No less than one mudd of wheat suffices, nor less than two mudds of anything else for each person”: a mudd is one-quarter of a saʿ according to the Prophet’s saʿ. The Prophet’s saʿ is smaller than our saʿ by one-fifth and one-fifth of one-fifth; that is, one adds to the Prophet’s saʿ one-quarter and one-fifth of that quarter, until it reaches the measure of the saʿ used in al-Qasim. We have precisely determined it and found the Prophet’s saʿ to be 2,040 grams—that is, two kilograms and forty grams. Thus, if a person feeds one-quarter of this amount of wheat, it suffices. As for anything other than wheat, it must be two mudds—that is, half a saʿ.

Foods other than wheat include dates, barley, raisins, and dried curds. According to the madhhab, half a saʿ is required of these, whereas for wheat, one mudd is required. The evidence for this distinction, even though the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, may Allah be pleased with him, “Feed six needy people, giving each needy person half a saʿ” (2), is that when Muʿawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, arrived in Madinah and wheat became plentiful there, he said, “I consider one mudd of this to be equivalent to two mudds of dates.” (3) The people adopted this during his caliphate and began to give