—meaning the Companions. Besides, the poor cannot make the necessary preparations unless the charity is delivered ahead of time. For that reason our teacher ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī preferred paying it one or two days before the Eid.

The jurists then differed over the exact point at which it becomes obligatory:

• The Ḥanafīs held that it falls due at the break of dawn on the day of Eid al-Fiṭr. They argued that the charity is linked to the breaking of the fast, and such an annexation denotes exclusivity; this breaking of the fast pertains to the day, not the night. Consequently, if someone dies before dawn, the charity is not required of him, and if a person embraces Islam or is born after dawn, it is likewise not due on his behalf.

• The majority of scholars—including the other three Imams—maintained that it becomes obligatory at sunset on the eve of Eid al-Fiṭr, for that is the first moment at which the fast of the entire month truly ends. Hence, whoever dies after sunset must pay it, whereas one who is born or becomes Muslim after that time is not liable, because the cause that makes it obligatory did not exist in his case.