immediately; if doing so would cause hardship, payment is deferred.

This is Ahmad’s explicit position: deferral is not obligatory, contrary to the view of many of his followers, who deemed it obligatory, agreeing with those among the followers of Abū Hanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, Mālik and others who held that view. This opinion is exceedingly weak. It resembles the view that the Muslim community may abrogate the law of its Prophet, as some people maintain when they say that consensus can be abrogated. This is among the views Ahmad most strongly rejected. An established Sunnah cannot be set aside except by another established Sunnah. Nor can a consensus contrary to a Sunnah arise unless that consensus is accompanied by a known Sunnah which we know abrogates the earlier one.

Section

Allah Most High says in the verse concerning the one-fifth share of war spoils:

“One-fifth of it belongs to Allah, the Messenger, near relatives, orphans and the needy.”

The same appears in the verse concerning spoils acquired without fighting. In the verse concerning zakat, He says:

“For the poor, the needy, and those employed to administer it,”

and so on to the end of the verse. Allah thus mentions the categories without further restriction. Nothing in the wording indicates that they must receive equal shares; rather, it indicates the opposite. Whoever maintains that the wording requires equal distribution has therefore said something contrary to the Book and the Sunnah. Do you not see that, when Allah said:

“But the truly righteous are those who believe in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Scripture and the prophets, and give wealth, despite their love for it, to relatives, orphans and the needy