, namely, any grain or kind of dates that people depend on for their daily sustenance.
Imām Mālik and Imām al-Shāfiʿī maintained that it is permissible to discharge Zakāt al-Fiṭr with any grain or fruit that serves as a staple food, even when one is able to pay from the five kinds mentioned in the ḥadith.
This is likewise the view of the majority of scholars and is one authenticated report from Imām Aḥmad. It was the preference of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, and it is the stronger of the two opinions. The proof is Allah’s words: “from the average of that with which you feed your own households” (al-Māʾidah 5:89). By default, obligatory charities are meant to establish equity among the poor. Moreover, the five items cited in the ḥadith were simply the staple foods of the people of Madinah; had they not been their staples, they would have been required to give only from whatever they themselves lived on.
Ibn al-Qayyim, after listing those five kinds, said: “These were the foods most commonly eaten in Madinah. If, however, the staple of a particular town or district is something else, what is due is one ṣāʿ of that staple. Should their staple not be grain—such as milk, meat, or fish—they are to pay their Fiṭr charity from that staple, whatever it may be. This is the position of the vast majority of scholars, and it is the correct view to which no contrary opinion may be given, for the aim is to relieve the need of the poor on the day of Eid and to share with them food of the very type upon which the people of their region subsist.”
Benefit:
The best among these five items—or any other kind of food—is that which brings the greatest benefit to the recipient and achieves the intended sufficiency for that day.