Question

My dear Ameer and honorable Sheikh: What are the varieties of crops and fruit on which the Zakat is due? For example there are some who pay the Zakat on oil, what is the standard in that?

It is known that the Fifth (al-Khams) is due on buried treasures or treasure troves. My question is: Someone found Ottoman properties (funds of the livelihoods of soldiers). Does he then own them after paying the due Fifth or is it property of the Islamic State, to be kept in trust and returned to the Khilafah "Caliphate" State, when it is established soon, Bidhnillah?

Wa Barakallahu Feekum,
Abu Hussam Ad-Deen, Tarqumiyyah, Hebron, Palestine

Answer

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatahu

1. Regarding the varieties of crops and fruit on which the Zakat is due, they are: wheat, barley, dates, and raisins. They have been mentioned exclusively in the Ahadeeth, so no other agricultural produce is included. The evidence is the following:

a. Musa Bin Talha narrated from ‘Umar that he said:«إنّما سنّ رسول الله الزكاة في هذه الأربعة: الحنطة، والشعير، والتمر، والزبيب» "The Messenger of Allah (saw) taught the Zakat on these four: wheat, barley, dates, and raisins." Narrated by at-Tabaraani.

And it is also narrated from Musa Bin Talha who said:أمر رسول الله معاذ بن جبل - حين بعثه إلى اليمن - أن يأخذ الصدقة من الحنطة والشعير، والنخل، والعنب "The Messenger of Allah (saw) ordered Mu'adh Bin Jabal when he sent him to Yemen to collect the Sadaqah on wheat, barley, palms, and grapes." Narrated by Abu ‘Ubayd.

These Ahadeeth show that Zakat on crops and fruit is to be taken from these four varieties: wheat, barley, dates, and raisins. The Zakat is not to be taken from other types of crops and fruit, because the first Hadeeth came in a wording that indicates a limiting linguistic function.
b. Al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, and at-Tabaraani narrated the Hadeeth from Abu Musa and Mu'adh, when they were sent to Yemen by the Prophet (saw), to teach the people their Deen that he (saw) said: «لا تأخذا الصدقة إلاّ من هذه الأربعة: الشعير، والحنطة، والزبيب، والتمر» "The Sadaqah is not taken except from these four: barley, wheat, raisins, and dates."

Al-Bayhaqi said about this Hadeeth: "Its narrators are trustworthy and its narration is a chain transmission (Muttasil)."
This Hadeeth is clear in limiting the Zakah that is due on crops and fruit to these four varieties, because the word إلاّ "except/only" if preceded by a particle of negation, limits what came before it to what comes after it. Hence the Sadaqah was limited to the four varieties that were mentioned afterwards, being: barley, wheat, raisins, and dates.

c. The words "wheat, barley, dates, and raisins" which appeared in the Ahadeeth are static, thus do not carry other than their original meanings, no direct meaning (Mantuq) and no implied meaning (Mafhum), because they are not appellative nor category names. Rather they are limited to the objects which are named after them, and called by these names. Therefore such meanings as "dried fruits" or "food reserves" cannot be derived from their wording, because they do not imply these meanings or attributes. These Ahadeeth, which confined the necessity of Zakat to these four types of crops and fruit, specify the general wording that came in the Hadeeth:فيما سقت السماء العشر، وفيما سقي بغرب، أو دالية، نصف العشر "The tenth is due on what is watered from the sky, and half the tenth on what is irrigated by carried water."

This means that the tenth is due on what is watered by the sky from wheat, barley, dates, and raisins. While half the tenth is due on what has been irrigated by carried water.

d. The Zakat is not obligatory on other than these four varieties of crops and fruit. So the Zakat is not taken from corn, rice, beans, chickpeas, lentils, and other grains or cereals. It is not taken from apples, pears, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, oranges, bananas, and other types of fruit, because these grains and fruits are not covered by the words "wheat, barley, dates, and raisins". Also there is neither an authentic text that enumerates any of the aforementioned, nor is there a consensus, nor are they included through a Qiyas (analogy), because the Zakat is an act of worship, and the worships are not open to analogy in the form of Qiyas. Rather the worships are confined to the range of the text. Similar the Zakat is not taken from vegetables, such as cucumber, pumpkin, eggplant, turnips, carrots etc. It is reported from 'Umar, Ali, Mujahid, and others, that there is no Sadaqah on vegetables, as narrated by Abu ‘Ubayd, al-Bayhaqi, and others.

2. Concerning the second part of the question pertaining to treasure troves: Who finds a treasure has to pay the Fifth on it to the Islamic State, which will spend it in the interest of the Muslims. The other four-fifths belong to the one who found the treasure, unless he found it on someone else's land.

If there were no Islamic State, as is the case today, the one who finds the treasure pays the Fifth to the poor and needy and spends it in the interests of the Muslims. Thereby he frees himself from that obligation and the rest belongs to him.
The evidence for this is:

A. A treasure is money buried in the ground, either silver, or gold, or jewels, or pearls, or otherwise, like armaments or weapons; whether treasures buried by former peoples like the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Sassanids, Romans, Greeks, and others, consisting of coins, ornaments, or jewels that are found in the tombs of the kings and nobles, or in the hills of ancient rundown towns. Be it golden coins, or silver, placed in a jug, or other, hidden in the earth since the days of Jahiliyyah, or the last Islamic days. All of that is considered a treasure.
Linguistically the Arabic term for treasure "الرِكاز" is derived from "ركز، يركز", similar to the term "غرز يغرز" (to implant), describing something hidden. The saying goes: "The spear is fixed when he plants it into the ground." Also "الرِّكز" is the hidden sound. Allah Almighty said: ((أَوْ تَسْمَعُ لَهُمْ رِكْزًا)) "or hear from them a sound?" [Maryam: 98]

Whereas metal is what Allah created in the earth, upon the creation of the heavens and the earth, from gold, silver, copper, lead, and others. Linguistically "المعدن" (metal) is derived from "عَدَنَ" (perpetuate), i.e. to perpetuate in a place if you lived in it. Paradise was named after it as "جنة عدن", because it is a place of eternal stay. Hence metals are from the creation of Allah, they were not buried by humans. Therefore they carry a ruling different from treasures, since the treasure was buried by human beings.

B. The original ruling on treasure troves and metals, is what Abu Hurayrah reported from the Messenger of Allah (saw), who said: العجماءُ جرحها جُبار، وفي الركاز الخمس "The wounding of a beast requires compensation, and on the treasure the Fifth is due." Narrated by Abu ‘Ubayd.

Also what was narrated from ‘Abdullah Bin ‘Amru that the Prophet (saw) was asked about the money that is found on a desolate plain, and said: «فيه وفي الركاز الخمس» "On it and on the treasure trove the Fifth is due."

And what was narrated by ‘Ali Bin Abi Talib from the Prophet (saw), that he said: وفي السيوب الخمس. قال: والسيوب عروق الذهب والفضة  التي تحت الأرض"On the Suyub the Fifth is due. He said: The Suyub are the veins of gold and silver under the ground." Mentioned by Ibn Qudamah in Al-Maghniy.

C. Therefore, all money that is buried from gold, silver, jewelry, jewels, or other, found in graves, or in the hills, or in the cities of previous nations, or found in the land of dead, or in the desolate plain, that is relatively old, buried in the times of Jahiliyyah, or buried by Muslims in the past eras of Islam, is owned by the finder, who pays the Fifth to the State Treasury (Bayt al-Mal).

Similarly every small amount of metal, that is not worth of counting, be it gold or silver, whether in the form of veins or discharged, that was found on dead land, not owned by anyone, is the property of the finder, who pays from it the Fifth to the State Treasury (Bayt al-Mal). If the amount is worth of counting, not a limited amount buried, then it takes the rule of public ownership and has other details.

The Fifth that is taken from the finder of the treasure and the finder of the metal is paid into a department within the State Treasury, called "Diwan al-Fay' wal-Kharaaj" and is spent in the same way as al-Fay' and al-Kharaaj. They fall under the proxy of the Khaleefah who spends them in care of the affairs of the Ummah, and spends them in their interests according to his opinion and diligence, for the sake of goodness and righteousness.

D. Whoever finds a treasure or metal on his own property, either his land or his building, then it is his property, whether he bequeathed the land or the building, or bought it from others. Who finds a treasure or metal in the land or building of another, then the treasure or metal belong to the owner of that land or building.

Your brother,
Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah

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