a ḥiqqah (a three-year-old she-camel) in place of the bint makhāḍ, not a bint labūn, according to the sounder view.

If two possible assessments coincide—for example, when the herd numbers two hundred camels—the school holds that four ḥiqqahs are not fixed; rather, the due can be four ḥiqqahs or five banāt labūn. Should the owner possess one of the two kinds, that one is taken; if not, he must obtain whichever of them he prefers. A second opinion maintains that the option more advantageous to the poor is obligatory, and if both kinds are available, the correct view is that the more beneficial one is required. No other substitute suffices when the owner has practiced deception or the collector has been negligent; otherwise it is acceptable. The sounder position is that he must also pay the value of the difference, which may be rendered in silver dirhams. Another view stipulates that he must procure the exact equivalent.

When a bint makhāḍ is due but the owner has none while owning a bint labūn, he offers the bint labūn and receives two sheep or twenty dirhams as compensation. Conversely, if a bint labūn is due but unavailable, he may give a bint makhāḍ together with two sheep or twenty dirhams, or offer a ḥiqqah and take two sheep or twenty dirhams. The choice between giving sheep or dirhams rests with the party who is providing the compensation, and, according to the sounder view, the decision to go up or down in grade lies with the owner—unless his camels are defective. In that case he may move up two grades and take double compensation, or move down two grades with double compensation, provided that moving only one grade is impossible; this, too, is the sounder opinion. On the better of the two views, it is not permissible to take compensation along with a thaniyyah in place of a jazʿah.

I say: the majority considers the permissibility to be the sounder view, and Allah knows best.

A single sheep with ten dirhams is not sufficient; two sheep and twenty dirhams are, for they equal two compensations. With cattle, no zakāt is due until they reach thirty; at thirty one tabīʿ (a one-year-old calf) is taken. Thereafter, a tabīʿ is taken for every thirty and a musinnah (a two-year-old cow) for every forty. With sheep and goats, nothing is due until the herd reaches forty; at forty, one sheep is taken—a jadhaʿah of sheep or a thaniyyah of goats. At one hundred and twenty-one, two sheep are due; at two hundred and one, three; at four hundred, four; and for every additional hundred, one sheep.

Section

If the livestock is of a single species, the zakāt animal is taken from that same species. Should an animal be taken from sheep for goats, or from goats for sheep, it is permissible according to the sounder opinion, so long as the value is observed. When the herd contains different kinds—such as sheep and goats—one opinion says the animal is taken from the more numerous kind; if they are equal, from the kind that benefits the poor more. The stronger view, however, is that the owner may present whichever kind he chooses, with the value apportioned between them. Thus, if the herd consists of thirty nanny-goats and ten ewes, he would produce an animal worth three-quarters of a goat and one-quarter of a ewe.

A sick or defective animal is not taken unless the entire herd is of that sort. Nor is a male animal taken unless that is the prescribed due, and the same rule applies even if the herd is entirely male, according to the sounder position. According to the new opinion, a young animal may be taken, but a suckling, a fattened beast, a pregnant animal, or the owner’s best animal is not taken except with his consent.

If several zakāt-liable persons share a single herd, they pay the zakāt jointly, as when a man