He also said—may Allah have mercy on him:

A Principle Concerning Obligatory Transactions Involving Compensation and Related Matters

Section

Providing benefits and property, whether for compensation or gratuitously, is either obligatory or recommended. Obligatory provision is either an individual duty or a collective duty. As for obligatory gratuitous contributions—whether of property or benefits—their discussion belongs elsewhere.

Financial obligations involving no compensation fall into four categories, mentioned in the transmitted hadith:

“Four deeds absolve whoever performs them of miserliness: paying zakat, showing hospitality to guests, maintaining ties of kinship, and giving in times of need.”

Accordingly, a miser is defined as someone who neglects any one of these four, according to the sounder of the two views held by the scholars of our school, which Abū Bakr and others preferred. Zakat is the regular obligation incurred on account of wealth, comparable to