The month of Ramadan hardly passes every year until the jurisprudential debate returns again between two teams, one of which believes that the payment of zakat al-Fitr is limited to the foods mentioned in the Prophet’s guidance (barley, wheat, Iqt, dates, raisins), and contemporaries add rice as sustenance. Another view is that cash is more appropriate for the needy in securing Eid necessities, including clothes and others.
The advisor at the Royal Court, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, looked forward years ago to reconsider the fatwa of paying zakat al-fitr as food, and he did not hide his tendency to take it out as money, given that its holders sell it immediately at less than its price.
While Professor of Jurisprudence at the Higher Institute of the Judiciary, Dr. Yusuf bin Abdullah Al-Shubaili, believes that the issue of issuing Zakat Al-Fitr as money or food is one of the diligent issues, and there is a great disagreement among the scholars, as the Hanafi jurists disagreed with the majority of scholars in this issue by allowing them to pay it in money, and he expressed his reservations about those who He sees the disagreement as a spasm and a dispute, and that whoever says that it is taken out as money is outside the sayings of the scholars, and whoever adheres to taking it out as food is a strict one, explaining that the Prophet imposed Zakat Al-Fitr as a measure of dates or a measure of barley, wheat, or other food from the country, and if a person takes it out of food It is part of it according to the agreement of the scholars.
And Al-Shubaili confirms that the matter is broad. Whoever adopts the opinion of taking out zakat al-fitr in money based on a fatwa that was issued, then he is not reprimanded for being one of the diligent issues.
While the jurisprudential researcher, Dr. Hatem Al-Sharif Al-Awni, preferred to take it out as food, and went to follow the wisdom in diversifying the Sharia for the types of alms, starting from cash in the zakat of money and trade offers, and the cattle in the zakat of the saameh, and the fruits in the zakat of the harvest, and the meat in the sacrifice, the gift and the aqeeqah, and the foodstuffs in the zakat al-Fitr, and he sees Diversification is intended for several reasons, including enriching the needy with multiple types of gifts, so one time he is given money, and another time he is given sustenance, and to accustom the soul to generosity with all kinds of blessings, so do not get used to stinginess and miserliness with anything, and count that as a practical training on giving and generosity from all that a Muslim owns. And he said: “While I prefer that zakat al-fitr should be given out as food, I see that the value of zakat al-fitr should be given out as a valid saying, and it is more likely in the event that there is a spoiler than the obligation to give out food, as if it becomes usual for the poor to sell that food to buy with it what he needs.” .
Ali Al-Rubai (Jeddah) @Al_ARobai
