Praise be to Allah and His Solah and salam be upon the last Messenger, his household and companions till the day of qiyamah.
It is called Zakatul Fitr because the reason for it's obligation is fitr i.e breaking of fast.
1> It's Ruling and Evidence: Allah says: Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 43:
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
And perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat), and giveZakat,and Irka' (i.e. bow down or submit yourselves with obedience to Allah) along with Ar-Raki'un.
Zakatul fitr falls under the general commandment of the verse.
AbduLLah bn Umar rodiyaLLaahu anhum reported:
The messenger alyhissolaat wassalaam obligated a saa' (this will be explained later) sodaqah of breaking fast of Ramadan from barley upon the slave and free, male and female, young and old among the Muslims. (Bukharee:1504) (Muslim:984)
2> Conditions for giving It It has two conditions
# Islam, it is not obligatory (or acceptable) upon the disbeliever.
# Possession of more food than what will suffice him and his household (dependents) and what will cater for their basic needs in the day and night of Eid
3> Wisdom Behind It's Obligation
# It is food for the poor and saves them from begging
# Purification for those who fasted
# An acknowledgement and proclamation of gratitude to Allah.
# Show of the beauty of Islam
4> Measurements, to who and from who and what type of food? A saa' is four Mudd, a mudd is when an average adult man joins his palms together and cups them like you do when you want to drink from a tap.
It is obligatory upon every Muslim even the new born that is born before fajr (daybreak) on the day of Eid. As for the foetus in the womb, it's recommended but not obligatory as was done by Uthman bn Affaan (see Musanaf Ibn Abi Shaybah:10737) It is to be given to the poor. The poor person is the one who doesn't have what will suffice him and his dependants on the day of Eid even if he has a job.
The food type is any commonly eaten food in the society, rice is the perfect food for our society, it was barley and wheat during the time of the Prophet alyhissolaat wassalaam.
5> The Time Of Giving It It's best time is the morning of Eid before the prayer, but it can be given a day or two before Eid. Whoever gives it after Solah has not fulfilled the obligation and has does committed a sin by delaying an obligatory act beyond it's time, but he should still give it to raise the sin of totally leaving an obligatory act.
6> The Big Debate in This Chapter "All the scholars of Islamic jurisprudence didn't permit giving it's equivalent in money, Abu Haneefah permitted it" (Imam Nawawiyy in Sharh Muslim: 7/60) I say: "may Allah have mercy on Imam Abu Haneefah" Imam Abu Haneefah's verdict is rejected for the following reasons:
# Allah never forgets, if it was permissible, Allah would have mentioned it especially since currency was in use at the time of revelation. If this was permissible it would have been mentioned.
# The Zakatul fitr is a symbol of Islam just like The slaughter Animal is a symbol of Islam. So it's an equivalent of slaughtering in the Eidul fitr.
Just as you can't give the equivalent of the the animal in money as sodaqah, so also you shouldn't give the equivalent of the food in sodaqah.
#It is a great undoing for someone to use qiyas (analogy) against texts of Quran and sunnah. Like some of our brothers have been saying that since its too give food and money can buy food etc.
May Allah forgive us all.
But Sheikh Mashoor Hasan al-Salman gave a talk in Haram, the day before yesterday and gave two exceptions:
# If food is scarce and money is in abundance
# If he remembers the zakatul fitr just some moment before the solah and he is not able to give anything except money before the time elapses.
Perhaps it will be accepted in these two conditions.
Allah knows best. FROM. AHMAD The CEO Created at 2016-07-01 17:10:01