Zakat and Fasting in Radd al-Muhtar: Hanafi Rulings and Context

Ibn Abidin's treatment of zakah and fasting in Radd al-Muhtar synthesizes the accumulated Hanafi tradition with his own engagement with the contemporary circumstances of nineteenth-century Ottoman Damascus, producing a work that is simultaneously historically comprehensive and practically relevant.

The zakah sections of Radd al-Muhtar cover the full range of Hanafi positions on obligatory almsgiving. Ibn Abidin begins with the conditions for zakah to become obligatory: Islam, freedom, complete ownership, the wealth reaching the nisab threshold, and the completion of a full lunar year (hawl) of ownership. He discusses the Hanafi school's distinctive use of the silver nisab as the primary standard and the practical implications of this choice for calculating zakah on mixed holdings of gold and silver.

On zakah for trade goods, Radd al-Muhtar addresses the Hanafi school's requirement that trade goods be assessed at their current market value and that zakah be paid on their total value if it reaches the nisab. Ibn Abidin discusses the treatment of goods partially held for trade and partially for personal use, the valuation of goods for which there is no established market price, and the question of when goods acquired through non-trade means (inheritance, gift) become subject to trade-goods zakah when subsequently held for sale.

Ibn Abidin addresses the question of cash payment for zakah al-fitr — the Hanafi school's distinctive permission to pay this obligatory end-of-Ramadan charity in its monetary equivalent rather than in food. He traces the reasoning for this Hanafi position: the purpose of zakah al-fitr is to enrich the poor for the day of Eid, and cash may better serve this purpose than physical grain. His treatment of this question reflects the Hanafi school's flexibility in applying the principle of benefit (maslaha) to determine the best method of fulfilling religious obligations.

The fasting sections of Radd al-Muhtar present Hanafi sawm law with the same comprehensive approach. Ibn Abidin addresses the conditions for the validity of the Ramadan fast, the Hanafi position on intention (formed any time before midday), the acts that break the fast and their associated expiations, and the concessions available to travelers, the ill, the pregnant, and the elderly.

Of particular practical importance in Radd al-Muhtar's fasting sections is Ibn Abidin's treatment of the medical interventions of his time — cupping, bloodletting, and the application of medications — and their effect on the fast. He addresses the question of whether cupping breaks the fast (the Hanbali school holds it does; the Hanafi school holds it does not) with full engagement with the hadith evidence. His conclusion follows the Hanafi school's position that cupping does not break the fast, based on the prophetic reports that a later, abrogating report superseded the earlier prohibition.

Ibn Abidin's treatment of the fidyah (ransom payment) owed by the elderly and chronically ill who cannot fast reflects his attention to the practical needs of his community. He discusses the amount of fidyah, who is required to pay it, and whether it may be paid in food or cash — again reflecting the Hanafi school's practical flexibility on payment methods.

The voluntary fasts (sawm an-nafl) section addresses the days recommended for fasting — Mondays, Thursdays, the six days of Shawwal, the ninth and tenth of Muharram, the day of Arafah — and the Hanafi school's positions on when voluntary fasting should be broken and when completing a voluntary fast once begun becomes obligatory.