Allah has also said:

“There is no blame on the weak or the sick,”

up to His words:

“Nor is there blame on those who, when they came to you for mounts and you said, ‘I can find no mounts for you,’ turned away with their eyes overflowing with tears, grieving that they had nothing to spend.”

It has been said that they asked him to supply them with ni‘āl (sandals). Whether ni‘āl here means sandals worn on the feet or animals used as mounts, Allah has reported that His Prophet said to them:

“I can find no mounts for you.”

Yet he was urging people in the strongest terms to contribute. Had alchemy been real and lawful, and had he known it, he would have been obliged to practise it to obtain the means to equip the army. For whatever is indispensable to fulfilling an obligation is itself obligatory. Whoever attributes this to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, attributes to him something from which Allah has declared him free.

Furthermore, none of the scholars of the Muslim community has prescribed any financial due on alchemy—neither a fifth, nor zakat, nor anything else. They have, however, agreed that a fifth is due on rikāz (buried wealth), as established in an authentic hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. What unquestionably constitutes rikāz is treasure buried in pre-Islamic times: treasures buried in the earth, like mineral deposits. The scholars of the Hijaz do not include mineral deposits within rikāz; this is also the position of Ahmad and others. The scholars of Iraq do include them. Some scholars distinguish between cases where the wealth is found all at once and cases where it is not. Al-Shāfi‘ī has several well-known positions on the matter. The majority of scholars require a due on mineral deposits: either zakat or a fifth.