Al-Kāfī - Ibn Abd al-Barr - (1/323)

from his master; this is the position adopted by the majority of scholars.

A group of scholars from Madinah—among them Mālik—maintain that nothing less than one sāʿ suffices and that the payment must be made in any staple grain, excluding suwayq (roasted grain meal), flour, and bread.

Another circle of Medinan authorities, including Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, hold that when the payment is wheat specifically, two mudds—half a sāʿ—are adequate, whereas for any other grain a full sāʿ is required. This view is likewise reported from a number of Companions and Successors.

According to the scholars of Madinah, it is not permissible—either for this levy or for any other form of zakāt—to discharge the obligation by paying its monetary equivalent. This is the sound report from Mālik and most of his disciples.

There is, however, a narration from him and a group of them that the value may be paid for zakāt al-Fiṭr by analogy with the collector’s latitude to accept, in place of the specified age of livestock, another age or a substitute commodity, as mentioned at the end of the previous chapter. Even so, the first opinion remains the well-known ruling in the Mālikī school and among the people of Madinah.

If a slave is jointly owned by two men, they together pay one sāʿ of zakāt al-Fiṭr on his behalf, sharing it between them. It has also been said that each owner must give a whole sāʿ, but the former is the distilled position of the school, is closer to analogy, and is the sounder view. When a slave is owned by several partners, each contributes according to his share.

If a slave is half free, then if the owner of the remaining half pays the full amount on his behalf, that suffices; otherwise, the free half pays a proportion corresponding to his freedom, and the master pays for the portion he still owns. Another opinion holds that nothing is due from the slave in such a case and that the master pays only for his share, while yet another view places the entire sāʿ on the master.

The zakāt al-Fiṭr of a slave assigned to someone else’s service rests with the person who owns him. Some have said it is due from the one he serves, but the first opinion is sounder.

سيده وهو قول جمهور أهل العلم. ولا يجزأ أقل من صاع عند جماعة من أهل المدينة منهم مالك وغيره من الحبوب المقتاتة كلها دون السويق والدقيق والخبز. ومن أهل العلم من أهل المدينة جماعة منهم سعيد بن المسيب وطائفة يجزأ عندهم من البر خاصة مدان ومن غيره لا بد من صاع وهو قول جماعة من الصحابة والتابعين ولا يجزأ فيها ولا في تغيرها من الزكاة القيمة عند أهل المدينة وهو الصحيح عن مالك وأكثر أصحابه. وقد روي عنه وعن طائفة من أصحابه أنه تجزأ القيمة عمن أخرجها في زكاة الفطر قياسا على جواز فعل الساعي إذا أخذ عن السن غيرها او بدل العين منها على ما تقدم في آخر الباب قبل هذا والأول هو المشهور في مذهب مالك وأهل المدينة. وإذا كان عبد بين رجلين أديا جميعا عنه زكاة الفطر صاعا واحدا بينهما وقد قيل صاع عن كل واحد منهما والأول تحصيل مذهبه وهو الأقيس والأصح وإن كان عبد بين جماعة شركاء أدى كل عن حصته وإن كان نصفه حرا فإن أدى مالك نصفه عن جميعه وإلا أدى عن نفسه حصة حريته وأدى السيد عما يملكه منه وقد قيل: لا شيء على العبد إذا كان بعضه حرا ويؤدي السيد عن حصته فقط. وقيل: الصاع كله على سيده وزكاة العبد المخدم على مالك رقبته. وقد قيل: على المخدوم والأول أصح.