5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

those that are obtained after the year is over are not included in
the nisâb. That is, they are not included in the (previous) year’s
zakât but are left over for zakât of the following year. It also
means that if they are obtained by one who does not have the
nisâb their zakât is not to be given that year.”
THE ZAKÂT OF PAPER MONEY – It is necessary to give
zakât of paper money, too. The Shiites say that zakât of money
other than gold and silver is not to be given. The author,
(rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh), of the book Tâtârhâniyya, a copy of
which exists with number 1968 in the library of Nûr-i-Osmâniyye
(in Istanbul) writes on the ninety-fifth page: “When the face
value of the fulûs, that is, the copper money used in lieu of
silver money, is two hundred dirhams of silver or twenty
mithqals of gold, its zakât is to be given. One does not
necessarily have to be using them with the intention of trade,
and its equivalent in gold, that is, gold of the same value is
given.”
[It is written in Arabic in Miftâh-us-sa’âda, “If the value of
copper coins termed fulûs amounts to two hundred dirhams of
silver when calculated with silver, it is necessary to give onefortieth
of the silver equivalent of those fulûs as their zakât.”
Hence it is understood that zakât of paper money is to be given
in gold. It cannot be given in paper money.
The author (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) of the book Durr-ulmuntaqâ
states at the end of the section about sarf, “When
fulûs becomes currency it is like silver money. If it is not legal
tender it is like other commodities. It is permissible to buy
something in exchange for fulûs which one has in a certain
number or weight, e.g. one dirham of fulûs. Then one has to
pay the fulûs weighing one dirham. Actually, the fulûs itself is
not money. Consisting in pieces of metal coined so as to
represent pieces of silver dirhams, it is used for buying cheap
things.”]
The nisâb of paper bills is calculated with the cheapest gold
coins on the market. For they are bonds used in lieu of gold
today and being pieces of paper have little intrinsic value, which
cannot equal the amount of nisâb. Their nominal or face values
equal to the gold have been determined by governments. That
is, they are speculative and everchanging. For their zakât, one
fortieth of their gold coin equivalent or any kind of gold of the
same weight should be given. After handing the gold to a poor
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