Ijabat al-Sual fi Zakat al-Amwal
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Ijabat al-Sual fi Zakat al-Amwal (Answering the Question Regarding the Zakat on Wealth) is a jurisprudential treatise dedicated to the legal rulings of zakat on property and wealth, authored by Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz al-Sudais .
Purpose and Scope
The author wrote the book to address the widespread obscurity surrounding zakat rulings among many Muslims in modern times . Noting that zakat is divided into zakat on bodies (zakat al-badan, referring to zakat al-fitr) and zakat on wealth (zakat al-amwal), he focused the work specifically on the latter . The book presents its discussions primarily through a question-and-answer format to facilitate understanding for readers seeking practical legal answers .
Structure
The work comprises an introduction and three main chapters :
- Introduction: Covers the importance of codifying Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and transmitting religious knowledge .
- Chapter One: Discusses fundamental aspects of zakat across four sections: its linguistic and legal definitions, the underlying wisdom behind its prescription, its textual proofs, and the legal status of those who withhold it .
- Chapter Two: Outlines the seven conditions governing the obligation of zakat: Islam, legal accountability (al-taklif), intention (al-niyya), freedom (al-hurriyya), the completion of one lunar year (al-hawl), reaching the minimum taxable threshold (al-nisab), and complete ownership (tamam al-milk) .
- Chapter Three: Details the four categories of wealth subject to zakat: the two currencies (gold and silver), livestock (camels, cattle, and sheep/goats), agricultural produce from the earth, and trade merchandise (urud al-tijara) .
Methodology
Al-Sudais relied directly on the authoritative sourcebooks of the four recognized Sunni legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali) . His method includes providing textual references for legal positions, performing hadith extraction and authentication (takhrij), evaluating scriptural evidences, glossing obscure lexical terms (gharib), and selecting the preponderant opinion (tarjih) on contested legal issues .
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