As for “zakat,” it is an obligation owed to Allah upon a person’s wealth. Hence the saying, “There is no obligation upon wealth other than zakat.” This means that no obligation arises merely from possessing wealth other than zakat. Other financial obligations do exist, but they arise for reasons other than wealth itself. These include maintaining relatives, one’s wife, slaves and animals; paying one’s contribution towards blood money owed by one’s kinship group; repaying debts; providing assistance during a calamity; and feeding the hungry and clothing the naked as a collective obligation, among other financial duties.

Such duties, however, arise from particular circumstances, while possessing wealth is a condition of their becoming obligatory. This resembles ability in relation to pilgrimage: the body is the cause of the obligation, while ability is a condition. In zakat, however, wealth itself is the cause, and the obligation accompanies it. Thus, even if no eligible recipient lives in one’s town, one must convey it to another town. It is a duty owed to Allah Most High.

For this reason, those jurists who regard legal accountability as a condition for zakat hold that it is not obligatory upon minors or those of unsound mind. Most of the Companions and the majority of jurists, including Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, however, held that zakat is obligatory upon the wealth of minors and those of unsound mind. Their wealth is of the same kind as anyone else’s, and their guardians act on their behalf. Their bodies are different, for these act only through their rational faculties, which are deficient.

This is comparable to the agricultural tithe being obligatory upon the produce of their land, even though only the eight categories of recipients are entitled to it. The same applies to requiring expiations to be paid from their wealth. Prayer and fasting cease to be obligatory only because their rational faculties lack the capacity required for obligation, especially when this is accompanied by physical incapacity, as in the case of a minor. This consideration does not apply to wealth, since their guardian acts on their behalf in understanding what is required, just as he acts on their behalf in all financial obligations. As for their bodies, no obligation is incumbent upon them in that respect.