Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

Written by Hüseyn Hilmi Işık

Published by Hakîkat Kitâbevi at Smashwords

Copyright © 2011 by Hakîkat Kitâbevi

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CONTENTS

Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

1 – Giving Zakât

The Zakât Of Gold, Silver, And Commercial Property

2 – Fasting In Ramadân

3 – Sadaqa Fitr

4 – Sacrifice (Performing The Qurbân)

5 – Vow (Nazr)

6 – Oaths—Kaffârat For An Oath

7 – Performing The Hajj

Hajj Has Three Farâid (Fards):

8 – The Conversion Of A Solar Year Into A Lunar Year

9 – Conversion Of A Lunar Year Into Anno Domini

10 – Finding Out The First Day Of The Hegira Year

11 – Finding Out The First Day Of Any Arabic Month (By The Işik Method)

12 – Marriage (Nikâh) In Islam The Disbeliever’s Marriage

13 – Death—Preparation For Death

14 – The Religious Service To Be DoneTo The Deceased—The Shroud

15 – The Salât Of Janâza

16 – Carrying The Corpse And The Burial

17 – Visiting Graves And Reading Qur’ân Al-Kerîm

18 – Benefits Of Visiting Graves

19 – A Letter Of Condolence By Rasûlullah (Sallallâhu ’Alaihi Wasallam)

20 – First Volume, 104th. Letter

21 – Isqât For The Deceased

22 – Knowledge Of Farâid

23 – Calculations Of Farâid (Solution Of The Problems Of Farâid)

24 – Second Volume, 16th Letter

25 – Second Volume, 17th Letter

26 – Second Volume, 88th Letter

27 – Third Volume, 15th Letter

FOOTNOTES (1-20)

FOOTNOTES (21-40)

FOOTNOTES (41-60)

FOOTNOTES (61-72)

Bismi'llâhi'r-Rahmâni'r-Rahîm

There are very many books teaching Islam. The book Maktûbât, written by Imâm Rabbânî and consisting of three volumes, is the most valuable. Next after that book is another book with the same title, Maktûbât, and consisting of three volumes, yet written by Muhammad Ma’thûm (Imâm Rabbânî’s third son and one of his most notable disciples). Hadrat Muhammad Ma’thûm states as follows in the sixteenth letter of the third volume of his Maktûbât: Imân means to believe both of the facts stated in the (special expression of belief called) Kalima-i-tawhîd, which reads: Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah, Muhammadun Rasûlullah. In other words, being a Muslim requires also belief in the fact that Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ is the Prophet. Allâhu ta’âlâ sent him the Qur’ân al-kerîm through the angel named Jebrâ’îl (Gabriel). This book, the Qur’ân al-kerîm, is the Word of Allah. It is not a compilation of Hadrat Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ personal views or of statements made by philosophers or historians. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ made a tafsîr of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. In other words, he expounded it. His expoundings are called hadîth-i-sherîfs. Islam consists of the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. The millions of Islamic books worldover are the expoundings of the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. A statement not coming from the Qur’ân al-kerîm cannot be Islamic. The meaning of Îmân and Islam is to believe the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. A person who denies the facts stated in the Qur’ân al-kerîm has not had belief in the Word of Allah. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ conveyed to his Sahâba the facts which Allâhu ta’âlâ had stated to him. And the Sahâba, in their turn, conveyed those facts to their disciples, who in their turn wrote them in their books. People who wrote those books are called scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. Belief in those books of Ahl as-Sunnat, therefore, means belief in the Word of Allah, and a person who holds that belief is a Muslim. Al-hamd-u-lillah, we are learning our faith, (Islam,) from books written by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat, and not from fallacious books fabricated by reformers and freemasons.

Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: "When fitna and fesâd become rife among my Ummat (Muslims), a person who adheres to my Sunnat will attain thawâb (blessings, rewards in the Hereafter) equal to the total sum of the thawâb that will be given to a hundred people who have attained martyrdom." Adherence to the Sunnat is possible only by learning the books of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. The scholars affiliated in any one of the four Madhhabs of Muslims are scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. Imâm a’zam Abû Hanîfa Nu’mân bin Thâbit was the leader of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. The anti-Islamic campaigns which the British had been carrying on for centuries for the purpose of Christianizing at least one Muslim ended in outright failure. In their search for new methods to achieve their goal, they established the masonic lodges. Masons deny Hadrat Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ words as well as all heavenly religions, and such basic religious facts as Rising after death, and existence of Paradise and Hell.

NOTE

This book is a translation of Se’âdet-i Ebediyye, which was originally written in Turkish.

The Turkish original of the book Se’âdet-i Ebediyye consists of three parts, all of which add up to more than a thousand pages.

We have translated most of the book into English and published our translations in five individual fascicles.

Se’âdet-i Ebediyye is a book prepared according to the Hanafî Madhhab. There is not a single bit of knowledge or a word which contradicts the creed of Ahl-i Sunnat wa’l Jamâ’at in this book.

This is the fifth fascicle. We pray for the help of Allâhu ta’âlâ, so we may have it reach our dear readers.

A Warning: Missionaries are striving to advertise Christianity, Jews are working to spread out the concocted words of Jewish rabbis, Hakîkat Kitâbevi (Bookstore), in Istanbul, is struggling to publicize Islam, and freemasons are trying to annihilate religions. A person with wisdom, knowledge and conscience will understand and admit the right one among these and will help to spread out that for salvation of all humanity. There is no better way and more valuable thing to serve humanity than doing so.

Bismi’llâhi ’r-rahmâni ’r-rahîm.

With the Basmala, let us begin reading this book!

The name Allah is the best shelter.

His blessings are immeasurable, incalculable.

He is the Lord, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful!

PREFACE

I begin writing the book Endless Bliss in the name of Allah. Pitying all the people in this world, He creates and sends useful things to them. In the next world, favouring whomever He wishes of those Muslims who are to go to Hell by forgiving them, He will put them into Paradise. He, alone, creates every living creature, keeps every being every moment in existence, and protects all against fear and horror. Trusting myself to the honourable name of such a being as Allah, I begin to write this book.

Allâhu ta’âlâ has created everything, the living and the non-living, out of nothing. He alone is the Creator. Because He pities mankind very much, He creates and sends everything that is necessary for a comfortable, sweet and cheerful existence in this world and the next. As the most superior and valuable of His endless blessings, He has made distinctions for us between the way of truth leading to felicity and the way of falsehood, which brings about misery and sorrow. He has always commanded goodness, diligence, and helping others. He has declared that He will call all people to account following the rising after death, that those who do good deeds will live in endless happiness in Paradise, and that those who do not believe in the teachings of His prophets (’alaihimu’s-salâm) will remain in endless torment and pain in Hell. Therefore, we begin writing this work with the dhikr of His name and by trusting ourselves in His help. We also see it as an honourable duty upon us to express our gratitude and love for those superior men called Prophets, and especially, for the most superior of them, the Last Prophet, Muhammad (’alaihi’s-salâm), whom He has selected as an intermediary and messenger to guide human beings to the way of felicity and comfort.

Islam’s adversaries, who are against Islam as a result of sheer ignorance, learned from the bloody, dismal experiences they had had for centuries that unless their îmân was demolished, it would be impossible to demolish Muslim people. They attempted to mispresent Islam as hostile against knowledge, science and bravery, while, in fact, it is a protector encouraging every kind of progress and improvement. They aimed at depriving younger generations of knowledge and faith, thus shooting them on the moral front. They spent millions of sterlings for this purpose. Some ignorant people, whose weapons of knowledge and belief had been rusted and who had been seized by their ambitions and sensuous desires, were easily undermined by these attacks of the enemies. A part of them took shelter behind their etiquettes, pretended to be Muslims, disguised themselves as scientists, authorities and religious savants and even, protectors of Muslims, and embarked on stealing the belief of pure youngsters. They misrepresented evil as a talent, and irreligiousness as a virtue, a mode. Those who had faith (îmân), were called fanatics, retrogressive bigots. Religious knowledge, valuable books of Islam were said to be reactionary, retrogressive and bigoted. By imputing the immorality and ignominy, which is their own characteristic, to Muslims and to great men of Islam, they strove to slander those noble people and sow discord between children and fathers. Also, they spoke ill of our history, attempted to darken its shining and honourable pages, to blemish the pure writings, to change the events and proofs in it, to sever the youth from faith and belief, and to annihilate Islam and Muslims. In order to untie the sacred bond which placed into the young hearts the love of our ancestors, whose fame and honour had spread all over the world owing to their knowledge, science, beautiful morals, virtue and bravery, and to leave the youth deprived of and estranged from the maturity and greatness of their ancestors, they attacked hearts, souls and conscience. However, they did not realize that as Islam got weaker and as we got further away from the path of Messenger of Allah, not only were our morals corrupted, but we also gradually lost our superiority in making every kind of means, and in the modern knowledge which the century necessitated, and we, let alone maintaining any more the accomplishments of our ancestors in militarism, in science and arts, became worse. Thus, these masked disbelievers tried, on the one hand, to cause us to remain behind in knowledge and science, and on the other hand they said, Islam causes us to remain behind. In order to cope up with the western industries, we have to abolish this black curtain and get rid of the oriental religion, the laws of deserts. Consequently, they demolished our material and spiritual values and did our country the harm which the enemies from outside had been wishing, but not been able, to do for centuries.

He who wants to attain happiness in this world, in his grave, and in the Hereafter must, after adapting his îmân to the Ahl-as-sunnat, live in obedience to one of the four Madhhabs. In other words, all his worships and actions must be suited to one Madhhab. Of the four Madhhabs, he must choose the one that is the easiest for him to learn and follow; after learning it, he must act in accordance with it in everything he does. The savants of the Ahl-as-sunnat declared unanimously that when doing a certain thing, it is not permissible to mix the four Madhabbs with one another. That is, it is never permissible to do one part of something or a worship according to one Madhhab and another part according to another Madhhab. If one does so, one will have disobeyed the unanimity of the savants and will have followed none of the Madhhabs. To follow one Madhhab means to learn it and to intend to follow it. It is not acceptable to follow it without the intention.

A person who does not follow a Madhhab is called a lâ-madhhabî. A lâ-madhhabî person cannot be Ahl-as-sunnat. His worships are not sahîh (correct, valid). It is harâm to change one’s Madhhab for worldly advantages in order to get the desires of one’s nafs (lower self). Each Muslim must learn at least one Madhhab and do all his deeds accordingly.

May Allahu ta’âlâ protect us all from being deceived by the insidious enemies of Islam, from being trapped by lâ-madhhabî people, or by religion reformers who bear Muslim names! Âmîn.

Mîlâdî - Hijrî Shamsî - Hijrî Kamarî

1998 – 1376 - 1418

1 – GIVING ZAKÂT

It was during the month of Ramadân in the second year of the Hegira when it became fard to give zakât. Zakât has one fard: It is to reserve at a certain time a certain amount of one’s property of zakât, which is one’s full property and which has reached the amount of nisâb[¹] , with the intention of zakât, and to give it to those prescribed Muslims as commanded. Full property means one’s own property which has come through halâl (legitimate) means and which is possible and halâl (permitted) for one to use. The property of a waqf is no one’s property. If one has not mixed one’s own possessions with the harâm possessions such as those obtained through usurpation, thievery, bribery, gambling or by selling alcohol, or if one has not mixed with one another those harâm possessions which one obtained from various people, such property never becomes one’s own property. It is not halâl for one to use them or to make them one’s means of subsistence. One cannot use them to make mosques or in any other pious deeds. It is not fard for one to pay their zakât. That is, they are not counted in calculating the nisâb of zakât. If their owners or their heirs are known it is fard for one to return the properties to them. If they are not known one may distribute all of the (harâm) possessions to the poor as alms though one has to compensate for the properties if the owners or their heirs appear later. If the possesions will not last but will deteriorate until one finds their owners, it is permissible to use them and to indemnify afterwards, that is, to pay their equivalents or, if their equivalents are not avaliable, to pay for them. Please see page 27(print version). A person who holds a share in a company of commerce, if his share is as much as the nisâb, has to calculate the zakât of his share and give it. Ibni Âbidîn says in the subject of Bey’ wa shirâ (buying and selling), Religious officials are not permitted to sell the provisions they are to obtain from pious foundations before they take possession of them. For, though they are rightful entitlements, goods rightfully entitled to one do not become one’s property before one takes possession of them. The booties taken away from the enemy rightfully belong to the soldiers when they are taken to Dâr-ul-islâm. But they do not become their property before they are divided into shares and distributed. For this reason, the salaries and wages that civil servants and employees are to receive do not become their property before they receive them. The zakât of a salary or a wage is not given before it is received. The money deducted from them by unions or insurance companies, or the deductions for savings, bonds, is not included in the calculation of zakât. When it is received years later, only the money received is added to the basic amount for the year’s zakât. The case is not so with the bonds taken in exchange for what is sold. These and stocks and securities are included in the zakât every year.

The ’ulamâ of the Hanafî Madhhab stated that it is fard for every male or female Muslim who is mukallaf, that is, who is discreet and has reached the age of puberty [the age when he or she has begun to become junub and must perform the ablution of ghusl], and who is free, to give zakât when he or she has the conditions. To give zakât it is necessary to put the goods into the poor person’s possession, that is, to hand them to him. If a poor and discreet orphan’s walî feeds him, this does not count as zakât. But if he hands the food to the orphan, or if the walî clothes the orphan, it becomes zakât. If he eats with the poor orphan who has not reached the age of discretion, or if he hands the food to the poor and discreet orphan, he has given zakât. Being a walî is possible by being appointed the orphan’s guardian by the orphan’s father or by a judge. Because the appointed person has the right to take the presents to be given to the orphan and give them to him, he can also buy clothes, food and other necessary things with his own zakât and give them to him. It is written in Bezzâziyya that the alimony given to one’s poor relatives by a judge’s decision is comparable to this. Yet the zakât intended (to be given) to other poor people must be paid (only from the property of zakât concerned) without any substitution. Imâm Nasafî (rahmatullâhi ’aleyh) wrote in Zahîra, "It is written in Ziyâdât that a rich person will not have given zakât by buying food and giving it to the poor." It is written inBezzâziyya and in Fatâwa-i Hindiyya, If one gives the flesh of one’s Qurbân to the poor with the intention of the zakât of one’s sheep, it will not be zakât. It is written inÎdâh, The zakât which is to be given to a child or to an insane person can be given to his father, to his relative who is his walî, or to his guardian.

In all the four Madhâhib (Madhhabs), there are four types of property of zakât:

1 - Quadruped animals that graze freely in the fields for the major part of the year.

2 - Gold and silver.

The author of Durr-ul Muntaqa (rahmatullâhi ’aleyh) declares, When over twelve carats, the zakât of gold and silver is to be given, whether they be used as currency or used in a halâl way, such as jewelry by women, or used in a harâm way, such as men’s wearing gold rings, or they be kept in order to buy a residence, food or shrouds or even if they were necessities like a sword [or a gold tooth]. Hence, it is harâm for men to wear gold rings. Please see the second last page of the forty-first chapter of the second part of the Turkish original version.

3 - Commercial property or commodity which is bought for trade and kept for trade.

While explaining the causes and the conditions of zakât, Hadrat Ibni Âbidîn(rahmatullâhi ’aleyh) stated, The property should be bought with the intention of trading. Even if one intends to trade in things that come out of land areas liable to the ’Ushr, or which are obtained through inheritance, or which have become one’s property when one has accepted them, such as presents and bequests, they do not become commercial property. For the intention of trading is valid only in buying and selling. For example, if a person who obtains wheat from his field gives its ’Ushr or who has obtained urûz through inheritance keeps it with the intention of selling it, and if it is more than the amount of nisâb and is kept for more than a year, it is not necessary to give its zakât. If he sows the wheat which he has bought for trade [in order to sell] in his field, or if he intends to use personally the animal or the cloth which he has bought for trade, it is no longer commercial property. If later he intends to sell it, it does not become commercial property. The goods that he obtains by selling it or by renting it out become commercial property. If after buying he intends to sell the property which he has bought for use, or if when obtaining he intends to sell the urûz which he has obtained by inheritance or such things as presents, bequests and alms which become his property by his accepting them, or if he intends to sell the wheat he gets from his field, they do not become commercial property. If he sells them and if while selling them he intends to use in trade the urûz which (he gets in exchange for them and which) are their samans (badals), these badals (prices, values) become commercial property. For trade is a job. It does not happen only with an intention. It is necessary to begin it as well. But giving up trade happens only with an intention. In fact, giving up everything can be done with an intention only. Likewise, one does not become a musâfir and break one’s fast only with an intention. Nor does a disbeliever become a Muslim or an animal sâima[²] . But the reverse of these happen only with an intention. One’s gold and silver belongings and paper money are property of zakât, by whatever means one has obtained them.

4 - Things coming out from all kinds of land that are watered by rains, rivers or brooks and which are not taxed with kharâj, (even if they are not kinds of land with ’Ushr), or from the land belonging to a Waqf (pious foundation). Their zakât is termed ’Ushr. It has been commanded in the hundred and forty-first âyat of An’âm Sûra of the Qur’ân to give the ’Ushr[³] , and has been communicated by a hadîth to give one-tenth. ’Ushr is one-tenth of the crops. But kharâj can be one-fifth, one-fourth, one-third, or half. It is necessary to give either the ’Ushr or the kharâj of land. A person who is in debt to people does not deduct the amount of his debt, but gives the precise amount of his ’Ushr.

There is one fard in zakât: To make an intention (niyyat). An intention is made with the heart. When reserving or giving the zakât of one’s property, if one intends, I shall give the zakât for Allah’s sake, and then says that one lends it or that one gives it as a present while giving it to the poor or to the person whom one has appointed one’s deputy to give it to the poor on one’s behalf, it is acceptable. Words are not important. If one intends for zakât and for alms at the same time, it becomes zakât according to Imâm-i-Abû Yûsuf. It is alms according to Imâm-i-Muhammad ‘rahmat-ullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’, and one has not given one’s zakât. The debt of zakât of a person who has died intestate is not to be paid from the property he has left behind. For he should have intended it so. His inheritors may pay it from their own property. (In this case the isqât of the zakât will have been performed). If one does not intend while reserving the zakât or while giving it to the poor and intends long after giving it, it is acceptable as long as the property is in the poor’s possession. The intention which one makes while giving the zakât to one’s deputy is enough. It is not necessary for the deputy also to intend while giving it to the poor. It is also permissible for one to appoint a zimmî, that is, a countryman who belongs to another religion, one’s deputy to give one’s zakât to the Muslim poor. Yet it is not permissible to send a zimmî as one’s deputy for Hajj (pilgrimage). For only the rich person has to intend for zakât. However, for Hajj the deputy also has to intend. If the rich person says that it is alms or that it is kaffârat or that it is a present while giving zakât to his deputy and if he intends for zakât before his deputy has given it with the former intention to the poor, it will be acceptable.

If a person who is the deputy of two rich people mixes their zakâts with each other without their knowing of it and then gives it to the poor, zakât has not been given. The deputy has given alms. The deputy will pay for the zakâts. While explaining this on the eleventh page, Ibni Âbidîn stated, He having mixed zakâts with each other, they have become his property. He has given the poor his own property. If he has mixed them with the permission of the two rich persons or if he has gotten permission after mixing them and before giving them to the poor, it is acceptable. It is permissible for a person who is the deputy of the poor to mix the zakâts he received without letting them know and then to give them to the poor persons. It has been said (by some savants) that it is also permissible for the deputy of the two rich persons to give them after mixing them without permission. If a rich person says to another person, Give this much gold as zakât on my behalf, (or if he writes to a person in another city by letter), and if the latter buys the gold ordered with his own money and gives it to the poor, it is acceptable. According to Imâm-i Yusûf (rahmatullâhi ’aleyh), this person will ask for his money from the rich person later. Imâm-i-Muhammad (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) said, He can ask for it if the rich person told him that he would pay him later. Otherwise he cannot ask for it. It has been said (by savants) that if the deputy gives the zakât he has to poor people not nominated by the rich person and if the rich person agrees to it later, it is acceptable. If a person who has said (to his deputy), Give alms to the poor on my behalf, has not also said, I shall pay you later, he does not (have to) pay it. A rich person can give his deputy as much zakât as he would like to have distributed to the poor. The deputy of poor people cannot receive zakât more than the amount of nisâb for each poor person. A poor person’s deputy getting possession of his (the poor person’s) zakât, means the poor person’s possessing his own zakât. In that case the poor person owns that property. The zakât is not given for animals and commercial goods belonging to a Waqf (pious foundation).

THE ZAKÂT OF

GOLD, SILVER, AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Living or non-living, every kind of property, such as salts obtained from earth or from the sea, oxides, petroleum and the like, when they are bought for trade, that is, for selling, become commercial property. Gold and silver are always commercial property for whatever purpose they are bought.

Debts that are results of borrowing and floating debts to other people that are due to be paid before the day on which it is fard to give zakât are not included into the calculation of nisâb. In other words, first these debts are subtracted from the total of what one has of gold and silver and commercial property and one’s dues. Then, if the remainder is the amount of nisâb, one year later it will become fard to give zakât for them. Debts that are gone into after zakât has become fard are not excusable; their zakât is to be given. The unpaid zakâts of past years are counted as debts to other people. That is, they are not included into the new nisâb. Ibni Âbidîn gives a record of the books stating that those debts that are muajjal, that is, floating debts that are to be paid back at a definite time in the future after the zakât becomes fard, such as the mahr[⁴] that has been made muajjal till the time of divorce[⁵] , are to be included into the nisâb, but it is written in Durrulmukhtâr, in Hindiyya, in Durr-ul-muntaqâ, in Dâmâd, and in Jawharathat it is acceptable not to include into the nisâb these or the debts that are to be repaid by instalments at definite times in future. The zakât of the money kept for hajj, nazr or kaffârat is to be given. For they are not debts owed to other people. If a person who has the nisâb amount of gold and silver borrows a few sacks of barley towards the end of the year and still holds the barley at the end of the year, he does not have to give zakât. For debts should precedently be repaid from the property of zakât. They cannot be thought of as being paid from the property which is not included in the calculation of zakât.

As for dues; there are three kinds of dues according to Imâm-i-a’zam:

1 - Dayn-i-qawî is the Saman that has been lent or which is to be received in return for the selling of the property of zakât. It is included into the calculation of nisâb. When one year has passed over the nisâb of the dues or of the summing up of the dues with the money one already has, it is wâjib to give immediately one-fortieth of each amount (of them) that one has obtained. One gives the two years’ zakât of what one receives two years later and three years’ zakât of the amount that one receives three years later. For example, if a person who is owed three hundred pounds receives two hundred pounds three years later, he gives fifteen pounds’ value of zakât for three years, it being five pounds for each year. It is not necessary for him to give zakât before he receives the money. If a tenant repairs a house in return for the rental with the permission of the landlord, he will have lent the expenditure to the landlord, (Ibni Âbidîn).

2 - Dayn-i-mutawassit is the dues that are to be received for the selling of those animals of zakât which are not commercial property and of the things of necessity such as slaves, houses, food and drink, and for the rentals of houses. They are included into the calculation of nisâb. One year after one’s property reaches the amount of nisâb one immediately gives one-fortieth for each year of what one has received.

3 - Dayn-i-daîf is the inherited property or mahr. It is included in the calculation of nisâb. One year after one has reached the nisâb amount of it one gives zakât of that year only. If one also has the nisâb amount of property, one adds to it what one has received of the dues and also gives the zakât of the amount received when the year of the nisâb one already has is over. One does not wait for another year to give its zakât. Also, if one receives those kinds of dues that are qawî and mutawassit before one year has passed, one adds them to what one already has and gives their zakâts at the same time. According to the two imâms, (that is, Imâm-i-Abû Yûsuf and Imâm-i-Muhammad) ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihimâ’, if any dues are the amount of nisâb their zakât is to be given after one year has passed, even if the amount received is less than the nisâb.

Property that is lost, which has fallen into the sea, which has been usurped, or the place where it was buried has been forgotten, and dues that are denied are not included in the calculation of nisâb, and if they are recovered the zakâts of previous years are not given. Dues for which there are written proofs or two witnesses for each or which are confessed by the debtors are included in the nisâb even if they are kept by an insolvent or poor person. When one receives them one gives their zakâts for the past years as well.

VITAL NEEDS - Are things that protect one from death. The first of them is subsistence. There are three kinds of subsistence. Food, clothing, and housing. Food includes things needed in the kitchen as well. And housing includes things needed in the house. One’s beast of transportation or a car, weapons, servants, tools of art and necessary books are counted as things of necessity as well.

Going on hajj also requires having money and property more than these things of necessity. Subsistence is the subsistence for one and for those who it is wâjib for one to support. Of these things the ones that are more than one needs and all books other than religious and professional ones are counted as the money for hajj and are included in the nisâb of Qurbân and Fitra. But they are not included in the nisâb of zakât unless they are intended for trade. To go on hajj, if one has a house other than the one one lives in, one sells it. But one does not sell the spare rooms of one house. It is not necessary to sell the house one lives in and then rent another house. It is permissible to buy things of necessity before the time of hajj comes. After hajj has become fard, it is not permissible to spend the money of hajj to buy them. One should go on hajj first. While explaining the hajj, Ibni Abidîn says, One’s food or money for one year is counted as subsistence. One sells what is more than that and goes on hajj. A tradesman’s, a craftsman’s, an artisan’s or a farmer’s capital customary in his region is of the things of necessity when the hajj is concerned. One’s subsistence and that of those who it is wâjib for one to support are calculated in accordance with the customs of one’s city and with one’s friends. It is necessary to eat good food and to wear good, clean and beautiful clothes. But one should not be a spendthrift. Human rights are to be paid before Allah’s rights. One should not borrow money in order to go on hajj, unless one is sure to repay it.

Money which one has reserved for buying things of necessity or for meeting the expenses of one’s funeral is included in the calculation of nisâb. If a person has only that money and if it is still equal to the amount of nisâb one year after it has reached the amount of nisâb, he gives zakât of what remains in his possession of that money. For in zakât, fitra and qurbân it is not a condition to have the things of necessity. What one has of these things are not included in the calculation of nisâb.

If gold or silver or commercial property remains in one’s possession for one hijrî (Arabic) year (354 days) from the day its weight or value has reached the amount of nisâb, it is fard for one to reserve with the intention of zakât one-fortieth of what has remained and give it to poor Muslims. It is wâjib to give it as soon as possible. It is makrûh to delay it without any good excuse (’udhr) to do so. It is not necessary to intend or to say that it is zakât while giving it. This is so