Islams Reformers

the amount of al-amwâl az-zâhira and to distribute its zakât to the
poor. These will be done by the ‘âmil, the official sent by the imâm
of Muslims.”
What men need and keep for use is a possession. A few seeds
of wheat, a spoonful of soil, a draught of water are not possessions,
since not all or some people keep them.
If paper money would not be used with the value written on
them, they would be of no value, for these pieces of paper, when
prohibited to be used as currency, would no longer be in
circulation, become useless and would not be kept for use. Ibn
’Âbidîn wrote on “Sarf” in his Radd al-muhtâr: “If flûs (copper
coin) is legal tender, it will be money worth the value written on
it. If the value written on it is cancelled, it becomes worthless.” So
is the paper money. He wrote on the thirteenth page, “The
promissory note has two meanings; the value written on it and the
paper’s own value. The value written on it indicates the
possession which is dain, that is, one’s own possession which one
does not have with oneself. The paper’s own value is very little.”
He wrote on the sixteenth page that the values written on the
notes or checks of salary that will be received from the State
indicate one’s possessions that are dain. So are the values on
paper money.
The zakât of one’s full possessions, that is, his property which
he is permitted and able to save or use, should be given. If they are
not his full possessions, their zakât need not be given. If the
property of zakât is in his hands, it is called ’ain. If someone else
keeps it, it is called dain. In trade, property is ’ain or dain under
different conditions. Mabî’, goods that have been bought, become
one’s possesions after contract but it is not permissible to use them
before delivery. For this reason, these goods are not one’s full
possessions before delivery. They cannot be included in the
calculation of zakât before delivery. Before the saman (exchange,
payment) of sold property is paid, it can be given to anybody if it
is ’ain in the agreement, that is, if it is sold for cash. If the saman is
dain in the agreement, thait is, if it is sold on credit, it can be given
only to the debtor (buyer). For this reason, the saman also will be
included in the calculation of zakât before it has been received.
Whether ’ain or dain, one year after one’s full possessions of alamwal
al-bâtina reach the amount of nisâb (the border of
richness), it is fard to set aside one-fortieth of it and dispense it as
zakât. It is written in the book Ad-durr al-mukhtâr that its zakât is
dispensed in five manners, as follows:
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