Seventh Issue
The reckoning of the lunar year for the offspring of sheep
Mālik holds that the offspring share the same lunar year as their dams, whether or not the dams themselves constitute a niṣāb, just as he ruled concerning profit realized on ready cash.
Al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfah, and Abū Thawr maintain that the offspring do not take the dams’ year unless the dams amount to a niṣāb.
The cause of their disagreement is identical to their divergence over profit accruing to capital.
Eighth Issue — The permissibility of paying Zakāt before the year is complete
Mālik forbids this, whereas Abū Ḥanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī permit it.
The point at issue is whether Zakāt is to be regarded primarily as an act of worship or as a financial right owed to the poor. Whoever views it as worship and likens it to the prayer does not allow its payment before its appointed time. Whoever likens it to deferred obligatory rights allows it to be paid early as a voluntary pre-payment.
Al-Shāfiʿī supports his position with the ḥadīth related by ʿAlī:
“The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—took in advance the alms of al-ʿAbbās before its due date.”
Fifth Section
Those entitled to alms
The discussion of this section is arranged in three chapters:
- The number of categories entitled to it;
- The qualities that render them eligible;
- The amount that should be given to each.
Chapter One
The number of categories entitled to Zakāt
As for their number, they are the eight whom God Most High has named in His words:
“Alms are only for the poor and the needy …” (al-Tawbah 9:60).
The jurists differed on two questions concerning these categories:
The first: Is it permissible to allocate the whole of the Zakāt to a single category among them, or are they joint beneficiaries such that no one category may be favored to the exclusion of the others? Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah hold that the Imām may channel the funds into one category, or into more than one, as he deems appropriate in light of the need.
Al-Shāfiʿī, however, maintains that this is impermissible; rather, the Zakāt must be apportioned among all eight categories exactly as God—exalted is He—has specified.