5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

those who serve pious foundations, to those who teach and
study Islamic knowledge, that is, Islam and science, to qâdîs,
muftîs and preachers, to those who work so that Islam and
Muslims will survive and spread. Even if these people are rich,
they are given a share suitable with the customs and current
prices in return for their work and service. [There is detailed
information about those who have allotments from the
Beytulmâl in the chapter about disasters incurred by the hand in
Hadîqa]. When they die, their children are preferred to others if
they have the qualifications. If their children are ignorant and
sinful, they are not appointed to their fathers’ place. It is written
in Ashbâh, “If the Sultan appoints an ignorant person as a
teacher, khatîb [speaker of khutba] or preacher, it will not be
sahîh. He will have committed cruelty.”
4 - Property left behind by rich people who do not have any
inheritors and the luqata, that is, things found unattended of
which no one claims ownership; they are spent on hospitals and
on funeral of the poor, and given to poor people who cannot
work and who have no one to take care of them. It is the State’s
task to make these four groups of goods reach the allotted
people.
The State appoints an official called Âshir to work out of
town. These officials protect tradesmen against highwaymen
and all kinds of danger. The Âshir asks the tradesman he meets
on the road the amount of his property. If it is the amount of
nisâb and if he has had it for one year and if it is commercial
property, of any kind of goods, he takes one-fortieth from a
Muslim, one-twentieth from a zimmî, and one-tenth from a
harbî. The property that is taken from the Muslim stands for his
zakât. Zakât is not taken from one who says that he has given
his zakât in the city or that he has not yet had it for one year.
Nothing is taken from tradesmen from a country of disbelievers’
which does not take anything from Muslim tradesmen. If it is
known how much they take, the same amount is taken from
them. [This implies that those who work in countries of
disbelievers should pay taxes to the related governments].
It is written on the fifty-seventh page of the second volume of
Ibni Âbidîn, (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh), “If there are no more
goods left in one of the four treasury departments of the
Beytulmâl, some of the property in the other three departments
is transferred on loan to this department and given to those who
- 47 -