Those stationed at the frontier garrisons—ribāṭ (frontier defence)—are given from the alms whatever they need for their expedition, whether they are wealthy or poor. This is the view held by the majority of scholars and represents the distilled position of Mālik.
Ibn ʿUmar said: “They are the pilgrims, those performing ʿumrah, and the ibn al-sabīl (stranded traveller)—anyone whose resources are cut off while on a journey undertaken for obedience or for lawful travel. Whether such a person is affluent or needy in his own land, if he is stranded elsewhere he may be given from the charity what suffices him and brings him to his destination. That sum is lawful for him to keep, and once he returns home he is not required to redirect any surplus into the other avenues of charity.”
These, then, are the obligatory channels of charity, namely the zakah. It is not to be disbursed except to these recipients, and it is impermissible to ignore them altogether. With the lapse of the category of the muʾallafah (those whose hearts are to be reconciled), they now number seven. Should the payer distribute his zakah himself, they become six, for the share allotted to the ʿāmilūn (collectors) no longer applies. If he divides the zakah among all the remaining categories and treats them equally, that is commendable; yet it is also permissible to favour one category over another, just as one may favour one needy person over another. Should he allocate the whole amount to a single category other than the collectors, his obligation is still discharged.
Mālik declared: “A relative is not to be shown undue favour, nor is a distant poor person to be deprived; all are to be treated alike. None of it is to be given to someone whose maintenance he is already obliged to provide, nor to a slave—whether unconditionally owned, a mudabbar (promised freedom at the owner’s death) or a mukātab (contracted slave)—except that, at the very last instalment of a mukātab’s contract, he may be given what frees him,” although Mālik’s statements on this vary.
The settled view of the school is that no portion of zakah is to be given to a mukātab at all, nor to a poor unbeliever, nor to pay the debt of a deceased pauper, nor to purchase a Qurʾān codex, nor for pilgrimage or ʿumrah expenses, nor for building a mosque, shrouding a corpse, or ransoming a captive.
Some have nevertheless held that, were a captive to be ransomed from it