Document Type : Original Article
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Abstract
Legal alms or Zakāt is one of the financial obligations that is ordained not only in Islam but also in other religions. The purpose behind this financial obligation is to purify the soul, purify the property and bless it, and to fill the economic gaps of the society. In the numerous Meccan and Medinan verses, this financial obligation is ordained, but like many other Qur’anic obligations, the order of revelations of the verses of the QurÞān exerts its effect on the type of ruling, subject, and the way or the ways in which legal alms are cinsumed , and therefore, this article is intended to examine the evolution of and change in the ruling, topic, and the way zakāt is consumed drawing upon the content analysis method. The findings of this study show that zakāt was obligatory on Muslims in Mecca, and the objects of legal alms were not restricted to the so-called nine jurisprudential cases, but the underlying principle was to meet the needs of the needy by its payment . For, at that time, most of the Muslims were the poor, the slaves and the needy. In addition, this financial obligation was not limited to zakāt, but in the QurÞān, God also ordained such things as fair loan (free loan without taking usury), spending in Allah’s way (infāq), feeding orphans and the poor, and made mention of the ‘recognised right, ‘the right to harvest’, and ‘to supply neighbourly needs’. For this reason, the word (zakāt) is used less in the early revealed Surahs and similar words are used istead to refer to this financial obligation, but with the passage of time and the increase in the population of Muslims and the strengthening of their social ties, the verses in which specifically zakāt is ordained has increased in number. In the early days of Islam, among other financial duties, zakāt was obligatory in general and its consumption was at the discretion of the payers, but in Madina and with the discretion of the Prophet Muhammad, the objects of legal alms were reduced and conditions were established for its obligation, payment and consumptions.
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