sheep” [al-Bukhārī, 1362].

These ḥadiths, therefore, restrict the general wording of Abū Hurayrah’s report in the two Ṣaḥīḥs about the zakāh on gold, silver, and livestock.

The Prophet ﷺ also said about what comes out of the earth: “No charity is due on less than five wasqs of dates, and no charity is due on less than five wasqs of grain” [Muslim, 979].

Thus, these and similar texts delimit the general statements, tying them to a specific niṣāb and a defined amount to be paid.

Other ḥadiths further qualify those general rules by describing their conditions, limiting them, and clarifying what was left unelaborated. Among them is his ﷺ saying: “For every forty pasturing camels a two-year-old she-camel (ibnat labūn) is due” [al-Bukhārī, 1386].

He ﷺ also said: “On what the sky waters, a tenth is due; on what is irrigated by artificial means, half of a tenth” [al-Bukhārī, 1388].

There is also the ḥadith: “Charity is taken only from these four kinds: barley, wheat, raisins, and dates,”

and the ḥadith: “As for cucumbers, melons, pomegranates, and sugar-cane, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has exempted them.”

All of these function as particularizers of the general rulings concerning gold and silver, grazing livestock, and produce from the earth; they restrict what was absolute and clarify what was ambiguous.

Second reply:

A careful examination of these evidences shows that the noble verse threatens those who hoard up gold and silver. What, then, is hoarding (kanz) in language and in law?

Ibn Jarīr said: Kanz is anything that is gathered together, one part upon another.

Al-Qurṭubī said: It is not confined to gold and silver.