Zakat and Fasting in Kanz ad-Daqa'iq

An-Nasafi's zakah and fasting chapters in Kanz ad-Daqa'iq present the Hanafi school's rulings in the compact style that characterizes the entire work. The student who has studied these sections carefully has a solid grasp of the Hanafi school's positions on these two pillars of Islam.

For zakah, the conditions are stated in condensed form: Islam, freedom, sanity, puberty, complete ownership, reaching the nisab, and the hawl. The categories of zakatable wealth — gold, silver, trade goods, and livestock — are specified with their nisab and rates. The Hanafi school's distinctive positions (combining gold and silver for nisab purposes, paying in monetary equivalent, the broader scope of agricultural zakah) are noted in the text and elaborated in the commentaries.

The distribution of zakah to the eight categories is stated with the Hanafi school's flexibility: unlike the Shafi'i school's requirement that zakah be distributed among all present categories, the Hanafi school permits concentrating zakah on one category or one recipient within a category when the need is greatest. This flexibility — grounded in the understanding that zakah's purpose is to relieve need — is one of the Hanafi school's most practically valuable positions.

For zakah al-fitr, the Hanafi ruling is presented: half a sa' of wheat (or one sa' of barley, dates, or raisins) per person, or the monetary equivalent. The timing — due before the 'Eid prayer on the day of 'Eid — is stated, along with the Hanafi permission to pay it earlier in Ramadan.

The fasting chapter presents the Hanafi conditions and nullifiers with an-Nasafi's characteristic precision. The categories of fast nullifiers — those requiring both qada' (making up) and kaffarah (expiation, for intentional sexual intercourse), those requiring only qada' (other intentional nullifiers), and those requiring neither (nullifiers that occur without intention, such as vomiting uncontrollably) — are presented with the graduated consequences that reflect the Hanafi school's careful matching of legal consequences to moral responsibility.

An-Nasafi's text on i'tikaf (mosque seclusion) specifies the Hanafi conditions: intention, a mosque (any mosque where congregational prayer is performed), and remaining in the mosque. The minimum i'tikaf in the Hanafi school is an instant — any duration with intention counts as fulfilling the form of i'tikaf, though the recommended practice is at least a full day and ideally the last ten days of Ramadan following the prophetic example. The recommended fast during i'tikaf — contested in the Hanafi school regarding whether it is required — is noted with the different transmitted positions.