Concerning Zakāt al-Fiṭr

Under the sub-heading “Its Amount,” he quotes the report of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was among us we would give the zakāt al-fiṭr … one ṣāʿ (approx. four double-handfuls) of food, or one ṣāʿ of aqit (dried curd), or one ṣāʿ of barley, or one ṣāʿ of dates, or one ṣāʿ of raisins …” Recorded by all six compilers.

The author infers from this that the obligatory amount for wheat is one ṣāʿ, basing himself on al-Khaṭṭābī’s statement that the word “food” in the hadith refers specifically to wheat. Ibn al-Mundhir rejected that reasoning, saying that Abū Saʿīd first used the general term “food” and then clarified it. He then cited Abū Saʿīd’s wording in al-Bukhārī: “In the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, on the day of Fiṭr we would give one ṣāʿ of food.” Abū Saʿīd added, “Our food used to be barley, raisins, aqit, and dates.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ remarks, “This wording is explicit in support of what he (Ibn al-Mundhir) has said.” Al-Ṭaḥāwī recorded a similar version, adding: “and nothing else was to be given.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ then cited further chains and wordings for Abū Saʿīd’s report and concluded: “All of these chains show that ‘food’ in Abū Saʿīd’s hadith does not mean wheat; it is likely to be millet (dhurra), the grain now common among the people of the Ḥijāz and a staple for many of them.”

I say: It is therefore clear that the hadith offers no proof for the author’s claim. Moreover, his presentation implies that the Ḥanafī view—allowing the payment of half a ṣāʿ of wheat—rests solely on Abū Saʿīd’s report in which Muʿāwiya equated two mudd of wheat with one ṣāʿ of dates. That is not the case; there are in fact hadiths traced back to the Prophet ﷺ, the soundest of which is the hadith of ʿUrwa ibn