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Likewise, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No zakat is due on less than five wasqs, less than five ūqiyyas, or fewer than five camels.”

He also said:

“No zakat is due on silver until it reaches two hundred dirhams.”

Regarding the thief, he said:

“His hand is to be cut off if he steals something worth the price of a shield.”

He also said:

“The hand is to be cut off for stealing a quarter of a dinar.”

In his usage, an ūqiyya was forty dirhams. Yet he specified no fixed measure for either the dirham or the dinar. He did not mint any dirhams himself, nor were dirhams minted in his land; rather, they were imported, already minted by unbelievers.

These included both large and small coins. People sometimes transacted with them by number and sometimes by weight, as he said:

“Weigh it out and give extra, for the best people are those who repay their debts most generously.”

There was a man there who weighed coins for a fee. Clearly, when they weighed them, they needed a standard weight by which to determine the weight of the dirhams. But the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, neither fixed nor specified this standard. It has been related that dirhams were of three kinds: eight dāniqs, six, and four. Perhaps the seller would specify one of these kinds, and the buyer would pay him according to its weight.

Nevertheless, he used the terms dinar and dirham without qualification and prescribed no fixed measure for them. This indicates that the terms encompass all these kinds, and that whoever possesses some of