As for the first category alone, it can sustain only a weak form of religion. As for the third, it sustains a wicked worldly life and a religion of innovation.

But religion as prescribed and a sound worldly life can be sustained only through the third category. Examples include giving to those whose hearts are to be won over, to secure their benefit or avert their harm; bribing governors to ward off injustice or obtain one’s rightful due—not to withhold anyone’s rights; and giving to someone whose harmful words or actions one fears, whether a poet, an oppressor, a highway robber, or anyone else. This also includes giving to those whose assistance is sought in righteousness and piety, such as helpers, supporters, governors, and others.

The basis for this in the Quran, the Sunnah, and the practice of the Rightly Guided Caliphs is that Allah assigned those whose hearts are to be won over a rightful share of the obligatory alms, whose permitted recipients He specified in His Book, taking charge of their apportionment Himself. This indicated that they may receive from funds for public interests—and, according to the correct view, from fay’ (wealth acquired without fighting)—whose permitted uses are broader than those of zakat. Everyone eligible to receive alms may receive from funds for public interests, but the converse does not hold. A recipient of alms receives either because of his need or because of the benefit he brings. Both grounds apply to expenditure for public interests; indeed, public interests comprise nothing else. Those whose hearts are to be won over belong to the category of people who bring benefit and thus have a greater claim to funds for public interests and fay’. For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, gave them from fay’ and the spoils of war, just as