518 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “In the time of the Prophet ﷺ we used to pay it as one ṣāʿ of food, or one ṣāʿ of dates, or one ṣāʿ of barley, or one ṣāʿ of raisins.” Agreed upon. (1)

In another narration: “or one ṣāʿ of aqiṭ.” (2)

Abu Saʿīd added, “For my part, I shall always give it just as I used to during the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ lifetime.” (3)

Abu Dāwūd has: “I never pay it except as a full ṣāʿ.” (4)

— Vocabulary of the ḥadith —
• ṭaʿām (food): Al-Jawharī states that in Arabic it denotes whatever is eaten, though it is sometimes restricted to wheat. Al-Karmānī explains that, while its linguistic sense is broad, the items joined to it here show that the customary meaning intended is wheat specifically; had something else been meant, wheat would have been listed separately, just as the other staple foods were.
• zabīb (raisins): singular zabība; a collective noun that can be treated as masculine or feminine. It refers to dried grapes.
• aqiṭ: soured milk that is cooked until its moisture evaporates and it thickens into a dough-like mass, then shaped into discs that are eaten fresh or dried.