I say: The sounder, textually established view is that a free woman herself is not liable; Allah knows best.
If a man’s whereabouts are unknown, the relied-upon position is that his zakāt al-fiṭr must be paid at once; another view says it is paid when he returns, and a third holds that nothing is due.
The sounder opinion is that whoever can afford even part of a sāʿ is liable, and that if he possesses several sāʿs he allocates them in the following order: himself, then his wife, then his minor child, then his father, then his mother, and lastly his adult offspring. A full sāʿ equals 693⅓ dirhams.
I further say: the sounder calculation is 685 5⁄7 dirhams, as mentioned earlier under zakāt on crops; Allah knows best.
The payment must be made in the tithed staple food, and—according to the preponderant view—this includes aqiṭ (dried curd). It is to be taken from the staple of the land; another view says from the payer’s own staple; a third allows him to choose among staples. A superior staple fulfils the obligation for an inferior one, but not vice versa. One opinion judges superiority by higher market value, while the sounder view judges it by greater nutritive value: thus wheat is preferable to dates and rice; the sounder view is that barley is better than dates, and dates better than raisins. A person may give for himself from the kind he eats and for his dependent from a higher-grade kind. He may not split one sāʿ among different kinds. If he lives in a land where no single staple predominates, he may choose, and the best is the most esteemed of them. If his slave lives in another region, the sounder view bases the payment on the slave’s local staple.
I say: what is obligatory is sound, unblemished grain. If a man pays, from his own wealth, the zakāt al-fiṭr of his wealthy minor child, it is valid—just as it is valid when he pays for an unrelated person with permission—unlike the case of an adult child.
If a wealthy person and an indigent person share ownership of a slave, the wealthy one must give half a sāʿ. Should the indigent later become wealthy, or should the kind each is required to give differ, then—according to the soundest view—each owner pays half a sāʿ of the type incumbent upon him. Allah knows best.