5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

person, one can buy the gold back from him with the current
market price and give him paper money to facilitate the
transaction for the poor person. It is written in the book Bukhârî
that (this method of) buying back (the zakât given), and thereby
using (it) in one’s own transactions, is makrûh when the zakât is
given in property other than these two currencies, (i.e. gold and
silver,) such as commercial property. Zakâts will not be sahih if
they are given as paper money without taking into consideration
the rules of fiqh. A rich person who gave his zakât in paper
money must give it again in gold or silver. One who becomes
poor later makes qadâ by using a small amount of gold to make
dawr [1] with this gold. For many centuries Muslims have given
their zakât in gold and silver. No religious scholar has ever said
that paper bills called fulûs or bonds could be given as zakât.
The article which is said to be the fatwâ dated May 5 1338
(1922) is false. It is written in ’Iqd-ul-jîd that it is not permissible
in Shafi’î Madhhab. (See the last two pages of the chapter
concerning the ablution of ghusl in the previous fascicle).
While discoursing over sarf, that is, money-changer’s
business, Ibni Âbidîn (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) writes, “If the
fulûs, that is, the copper coin, is legal tender, it becomes money
according to its face value. If its face value is not valid it
becomes valueless property.” And he says on the thirteenth
page, “Bonds have two kinds of value: the first one is the value
stated on it, which indicates the bond holder’s property which
he does not possess; the second value, the value of the paper
itself, is quite insignificant.” If one is in possession of one’s
property, the property is called ’Ayn. If one does not possess it,
it is termed Dayn. The value stated on a paper bill indicates the
property of zakât which is dayn. It is written on the twelfth page
of Durr-ul-mukhtâr, “It is not permissible to give in dayn zakât
of property which is ’ayn or which is dayn due to be returned. It
is necessary to give it from property which is ’ayn.” For
example, if one donates with the intention of zakât five dirhams
of two hundred dirhams which a poor person owes him and
takes back the rest, it is not acceptable. He has given zakât of
those five dirhams only.
It is wrong to say, “Paper bills cannot be compared to
ordinary documents prepared and signed up by a few people.
[1] Please see the twenty-first chapter for dawr and isqât.
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