to meet his needs. No Muslim objects to distributing charitable funds and surplus funds allocated to public interests among the poor and needy. Anyone reported to hold such an objection must either be among the most ignorant of religious knowledge or among the most disbelieving in the religion—indeed, in all religions and revealed laws—or the report attributed to him must be false or distorted. Anyone with even a moderate degree of knowledge and religious commitment would recognize this and would not prohibit it.

Yet right and wrong have become mixed together in these regular government allocations. Many needy, devout, and learned people are not given enough to support themselves. They are ravaged by hunger, yet do not beg, while those who know them have nothing to give them. Many others consume people’s wealth unjustly and turn others away from Allah’s path. Some receive stipends many times greater than their needs; others receive stipends despite being wealthy and having no need of them. Some secure appointments at mosques and elsewhere and take the stipends attached to them, making exceptions for those to whom they give a paltry sum. Some people in religious lodges and retreats receive funds to which they are entitled, but also take more than their rightful share, while withholding all or part of the share due to others who have a stronger claim than they do. This is found in many places.

No Muslim doubts that striving to distinguish those who are entitled from those who are not, to assign offices and stipends to those most entitled to them, and to treat people justly in this regard