He replied: ‘Allah has not left the distribution of zakat to a prophet or anyone else. Rather, He has divided it into eight shares. If you belong to one of those categories, I shall give you.’”

The Muslims agree that zakat may not be distributed outside the eight categories mentioned in this verse, as the Quran indicates. With this principle established, we shall state another:

The funds of the public treasury in times such as these fall into several categories. One consists of fay (wealth acquired without fighting), zakat, or the prescribed fifth. The ruling concerning these has already been explained. Another consists of funds that have rightfully entered the public treasury from other sources, such as the estate of a Muslim who dies without an heir. Some cases within this category are disputed, while others are agreed upon.

Another category consists of funds received without right, or on the basis of an interpretation, which must be returned to those entitled to them whenever possible, but which cannot now be returned. This includes funds confiscated from officials and others who accepted gifts or took wealth belonging to the Muslims to which they had no entitlement. The ruler recovered these funds from them or their estates but did not know who was entitled to them. It also includes proceeds from newly introduced levies that could not be returned to their owners, and similar funds.

According to most scholars, funds that cannot be returned to their rightful owners—for example, because their identities are unknown—are to be spent on the interests of the Muslims. Likewise, if someone holds wealth whose owner he does not know—such as a repentant usurper, a repentant betrayer of trust, a repentant dealer in usury, or anyone else who has come into possession of wealth that he neither owns nor knows the owner of—then he