Zakat, Fasting, and Hajj in the Mukhtasar

The three remaining pillars of Islam after the testimony of faith and prayer — zakah, fasting, and hajj — occupy a substantial portion of the Mukhtasar, treated in the same declarative style that defines al-Quduri's method throughout. These chapters give the student of the Hanafi school the essential rulings needed to fulfil these obligations correctly, in language sparse enough to memorize and precise enough to apply.

On zakah, al-Quduri covers the nisab (the minimum threshold of wealth that triggers the obligation), the hawl (the completion of one lunar year during which the nisab is maintained), and the rates that apply to different categories of wealth. The Hanafi nisab for gold is twenty dinars; for silver, two hundred dirhams. These thresholds, derived from the authenticated Sunnah, define the point at which the annual obligation becomes due. Al-Quduri addresses the zakah on livestock — camels, cattle, and sheep — giving the graduated scales that determine how much is owed at each level of ownership. He covers agricultural produce, trade goods, and buried treasure (rikaz), each with its own applicable rate.

One of the distinctively Hanafi positions that appears in this section concerns the nisab of trade goods. The Hanafi school holds that the value of trade goods should be assessed against the nisab of silver (two hundred dirhams) rather than gold, a position with practical implications for businessmen whose inventory fluctuates in value. Al-Quduri states the ruling directly without entering the comparative jurisprudential debate, as is his habit.

On fasting, al-Quduri covers the conditions that make the fast valid: the intention (niyyah) before dawn, abstaining from food, drink, and intercourse from true dawn to sunset, and avoiding the other acts that break the fast. The Hanafi school holds that the niyyah for obligatory fasting in Ramadan may be formed at any point from sunset until mid-morning (daytime begins) on each day — a slightly more flexible position than in some other schools. He then lists the acts that break the fast and require only qada (making up the missed day), and the acts that break the fast and require both qada and kaffarah (expiation). The distinction between these two levels of consequence is a refinement characteristic of Hanafi fiqh.

The hajj section covers the conditions of obligation, the obligatory rites (wuquf at Arafah, tawaf, sa'y), the wajib acts whose omission requires a compensatory sacrifice, and the sunnahs of the pilgrimage. Al-Quduri presents the Hanafi positions on the ihram, the sequence of rites, and the rulings on ihram violations with his usual concision. He addresses the differences between hajj al-ifrad, hajj al-tamattu', and hajj al-qiran — three permissible modes of performing hajj — and the Hanafi position that ifrad is the most excellent of the three, a view that differs from the Shafi'i and Hanbali preference for tamattu'.

These three chapters of the Mukhtasar give the Muslim the Hanafi essentials for fulfilling the core acts of worship after salah. Their brevity is a feature, not a limitation: the student who has mastered them is equipped to practice correctly and ready to study the reasoning behind each ruling in the larger works.