5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

They are valid everywhere. They are like gold.” For, Ibni
Âbidîn, in the subject of oaths (yamîn), quotes Imâm-i-Abû
Yûsuf as making the following statement in his book Kharâj
and ’Ushr, which he wrote for Hârûn Rashîd: “It is harâm for
the Caliph to take currency other than gold and silver, e.g. the
coins called Sutûqâ, from land owners as their kharâj or ’ushr.
For though these are officially marked coins and are to be
accepted by everyone, they are not gold but copper. It is harâm
to accept any money which is not gold or silver as zakât or
kharâj.”
It is not taqwâ to give zakât of paper money in gold. Taqwâ
in worships means to strive so that everything will be
acceptable to all the imâms of a Madhhab and even to every
Madhhab. If it is claimed that the poor consent to paper money
and meet their needs with it, then (it should be noted that) it is
Allahu ta’âlâ’s consent which is necessary, not the poor’s
consent. For example, Ibni Âbidîn says on the twelfth page, “If
a poor person owes to a rich person, who gives the bond of
debt to the former and says, ‘I have intended to give you as
zakât as much as you owe me. So you accept it and take it as
the equivalent for your debt so that we will have paid our debts
mutually,’ and if the poor person says that he accepts it, the
Sharî’a will not accept this and the rich person will not have
given his zakât. For zakât is not performed by uttering empty
words, by giving bonds of debt, or by consent, it is performed by
handing the commodity. The rich person has to pay his zakât to
the poor person and the poor has to pay his debt by returning it
to the rich after taking it from the rich. So is it in the Madhâhib of
Shâfi’î and Hanbalî. If he cannot count on the poor person’s
returning the money, he shows a person whom he trusts to the
poor person and says, ‘Appoint him your deputy to take your
zakât and to pay your debt,’ and then gives zakât to the deputy,
who returns it to the rich person, thus paying the poor person’s
debt.” It is also written as such in the books Durr-i-yaktâ and
Mizân-i-kubrâ.
Ibni Âbidîn (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) says on the same
page, “If a rich person, in order to give a poor person zakât of
his ’ayn property, that is, property which he possesses, [or of
the dayn golds which are the equivalents of the paper bills he
has], gives the bonds of debts which someone else owes to him
[or the paper money to buy gold in a bank or from a money-
- 25 -