be confined to these categories. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise (al-Tawbah 9:60).

1. The poor and the destitute are those who cannot secure their own subsistence and that of their dependants for an entire year. For example, an employee whose monthly salary is 4,000 riyals but whose family expenses amount to 6,000 riyals is deemed poor because he does not have enough. We would therefore give him 24,000 riyals from zakah to bridge the gap. Another man earns 6,000 riyals a month, yet he has a large family and heavy costs, and his real need is 12,000 riyals; in that case we would give him 72,000 riyals from zakah.

The jurists state that such a person is given what suffices him for one year, and no more, because over the course of the year a new cycle of zakah becomes due, which can again meet his needs. Hence they fixed the allowance at one year.

If someone asks, “Who is in greater need—the poor man or the destitute?” the scholars reply that priority is always given to the more urgent case, and since Allah began the verse with the poor, the poor are considered in greater need than the destitute.

3. The administrators of zakah are those whom the head of state appoints to oversee it: they collect it from those who owe it and distribute it to those entitled to receive it. Their share is granted for the service they render, not because they themselves are needy. If the ruler decides that each of them is to be paid a monthly wage of 1,000 riyals, we give them that amount from zakah, for they are acting in the interests of zakah and may therefore be paid from it. However, if the ruler wishes to give them from