142 – “Upon the believers, with regard to the charity due on fruits—or on wealth produced by landed property—there is one-tenth of whatever is irrigated by springs or by rainfall, and on what is watered by the gharb only one-half of a tenth.”

It was recorded by Ibn Abī Shaybah (4 / 22), al-Dāraqutnī (215) and al-Bayhaqī (4 / 130) through the route of Ibn Jurayj, who said: “Nāfiʿ informed me from Ibn ʿUmar who said: ‘The Prophet ﷺ wrote to the people of Yemen— to al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Kallāl and those with him from Maʿāfir and Hamdān …’ and he mentioned the above.”

I say: This chain is sound according to the criteria of the Two Shaykhs, and al-Bukhārī, the four Sunan compilers and others have transmitted it through the route of Sālim from Ibn ʿUmar, as a marfūʿ report, in wording of the same sense.

The hadith has also come on the authority of several other Companions—Jābir, Abū Hurayrah, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr and ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm—whose narrations I have gathered in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (790).

(The gharb—with a silent rāʾ) is the large bucket made from the hide of a bull.

Fiqh of the hadith:

I have cited this particular wording because of its opening phrase, “upon the believers,” for it contains an important benefit not found in the other versions.

Al-Bayhaqī said: “In it there is something akin to an indication that it (zakat) is not taken from the ahl al-dhimmah (non-Muslim subjects under Muslim rule).”

I say: And how could it be taken from them while they remain upon their polytheism and misguidance? Zakat does not purify them; it purifies only the believer who gives it from the filth of shirk, as the Exalted says, “Take from their wealth a charity by which you cleanse them and purify them, and pray for them; indeed, your prayer is a source of tranquillity for them” (Qur’an 9:103). Thus this verse is a clear proof that