Al-Khums… the Origin and the Guide (the Proof)

29 Rajab 1440H

The governments of the world impose on their peoples and their establishments large amounts of money under the title of "tax" or income taxation.
Every government endeavors via this system to cover immense expenditures which they require in various sectors of life like spending huge funds on developing the infrastructure of their countries such as: building bridges, dams, paving roads and also on the sector of education and other significant projects.
In the past, taxes, for instance, have been given in the form of agricultural products or crops which have been representing part of the farmer's outcome the whole year round.
But right now, the case is quite different than that of the past for there is now what is known as the "ministry of finance" in the language of the modern age which civil governments usually undertake the task of collecting taxes and several other taxes.
In Islam, Al-Khums is an obligatory imposition nearly equal to the tax that States of the world take from their citizens but here in Islam it bears a spiritual dimension which is linked to the world beyond this temporal world implying rewards and recompenses to the extent that it is regarded as a purifier for both wealth and human self and in paying it, you will be having purified yourself and your wealth and this will bear a great impact in changing the state of man into a highly better state on Doomsday.
During the pre-Islamic time – definitely, before the appearance of Islam, the chieftain of each tribe used to take the value of a quarter of the booty which his community can gain whether amidst wars or in other affairs and from here came what is known to be "Al-Mirbaa" with reference to the quarter which will be the lot of the chieftain out of the property of his people.
The Prophet (P.B.U.H.) of Islam has remarked in a dialogue run between him and Uday bin Hatim Al-Tayy before the latter enter into the religion of Islam and it was said of him that he once had said to him: "I see that you are eating up the "mirbaa" (the quarter) of the booty which is illegalized in your religion."Uday bin Hatim in another dialogue had another hadith with the Messenger of Allah in which he said: "In pre-Islamic era you took one fourth of the booty and in Islam - one fifth.
When Islam came into being it has imposed on the Moslems one fifth of the war - booty to be paid to the State of Islam instead of the one fourth of the booty, which had been in use before Islam.

What is Al-Khums?
In books of linguistics, Al-Khums is mathematically defined as: one fifth of anything. When we say that the folk has paid its one fifth of the war-booty it can be clearly understood that they had paid one fifth of what they had gained as booty according to the rule of the holy Quran.
But as an idiom employed in the Ja'fari doctrine, it came to mean: a legal right to use or extract one fifth of the matured person to be paid annually, according to certain details.
But as regards the Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence) it is "one fifth of the individual's wealth is to be dedicated to Allah's Cause, that is, it belongs to Allah, legally speaking though it is in reality still in the hands of the person to whom the money belongs.
Al-Khums, is to be given to the poor people of the offspring of the Messenger of Allah (P.B.U.H.) and some can be employed to manage religious affairs.

What Proof is there which confirms Al-Khums as a binding imposition.
The Shia Moslems, on the whole, follow the implications of the divine verse which relate directly to Al-Khums, Chapter of Al-Anfal: Verse 41) in which Allah, Glory to Him, addresses all people lucidly, eloquently and openly to bind themselves to the right of paying Al-Khums. The verse reads as follows: "And know that whatever of war-booty that you may gain, verily, one fifth of it is assigned to Allah, and to the Messenger and to the near relatives of the Messenger Muhammad and also the orphans, Al-Masakin (the needy) and the wayfarer, if you have believed in Allah and in that which We sent down to Our slave Muhammad on the Day of Criterion (between right and wrong) the Day when the two forces met (the Battle of Badr) and Allah is Able to do everything"(Al-Anfal:41).
Although the holy verse has been descended with regard to the booties which have been gained by the army of the Moslems post Battle of Badr against the disbelievers, there are also logically- linked and correct narrations which indicated or called for including the word 'booty' to any increase that occurs in the individual's wealth which comes from any legal source.
This is really a natural affair in the Islamic legislature and definitely in the holy Quran which points to some facts and leaves all details to the prophet and his trustees and all his offspring after his departure.
For example, the holy Quran has presented the daily five obligatory prayers and the Roundabout Ka'ba Prayer as compulsory prayers but the Quran doesn't touch upon the manner of their performance or the details and the serial acts that follow the prayer until it is over according to the familiar ways the Moslems used to follow.

The Prophet and the infallible Imams (P.B.U.T.) have stated all that is necessary for the Moslems to know through their recurrent hadiths about the rest of other acts that must be established serially as well as the matter of the daily five compulsory prayers which have not been mentioned in the holy Quran in full; nevertheless, what all Moslems have unanimously agreed upon as being obligatory according to what the honorable prophetic legal ways have confirmed, will be attended accordingly.
And this point has also taken place in respect of the imposition of Al- Khums, definitely, the topic of Al-Khums which correlates with the subject of the "war – booty" which all the Shia jurisprudents include any financial increase that takes place in one's income - of profits and outcomes within details which will be touched upon in the following chapter.
But as far as the prophetic legal ways are concerned, the hadiths that were narrated from the infallible Imams (P.B.U.T.) are like the ones before them which go round the same topic of Al-Khums now this time to be taken out of the annual surplus provision of profits, benefits and any other financial gains. Such gains are also included in the category of Al-Khums of the war- booties.
Among the hadiths which deal with Al-Khums is what is narrated by Hakim – "the prayer announcer" of Beni Essa through Abu Abdullah As-Sadiq (P.B.U.H.) who said that I said to him: "And know that whatever of war-booty that you may gain, verily, one fifth of it is assigned to Allah and to the Messenger…"He (P.B.U.H.) said: "It is by Allah, I say, the benefit is to be day by day."
In another hadith, which is documented as being really heard of he said: "I asked Abu –Al-Hasan about Al- Khums to which he replied: "in everything the people gained whether little or much." besides what is narrated by Muhammad bin Al-Hasan AI-Ash'ari who said: "Some of our companions have written to Abu Ja'far Ath-Thani (P.B.U.H.) and asked him saying :"Tell me about Al-Khums- Is there a top- limit for Al-Khums at which the individual in the light of that can calculate what he gains, little be or plenty and of different types and cultivated lands? And how can that be estimated? The Imam in his own handwriting wrote to him: Al-Khums comes next to checking up one's annual provision".
Ali bin Mehzabar said: " Abu Ali bin Rashid said to me. "I said: "You have asked me to do what you ordered me and got back to you your full rights and I notified your all of your friends of that. So I notified, where some of them said to me: "What is his right? But I didn't have anything to respond to him and he (P.B.U.H.) said: "To pay Al-Khums is a must on them. Then, I said: "On what thing shall they pay Al-Khums?" He said: "On their luggage, furniture and the lands that belong to them." Then I commented saying: "What about the merchant in whose hand a large area of land?" The reply came: "If they could, after checking up their annual provision.
Now we adduce to you also what the Shaikh had narrated through Muhammad bin Ali bin Mahbub, from Muhammad bin Al-Hasan, from Abdullah bin Al-Qasim Al-Hadhrami, from Abdullah bin Sinan who said: " Abu Abdullah (P.B.U.H.): "It is incumbent on every who got a booty, or earned a wealth one fifth of what he got shall be the lot of Lady Fatima (P.B.U.H.) and he who be loyal to her after her departure from this temporal world provided that he is of her pure progeny who deserves to be a proof over the people and that is allotted to them exclusively…wherever they want to apply it; yet forbid them from taking charities or alms like beggars.
Even the tailor who sews a shirt at five pence, (daniqs) for instance, one pence is to be left aside for us except those Shias whom we legalized as being free from paying Al-Khums to let them rejoice and cheer up at what they gain and there is nothing on Doomsday graver than adultery in case one considers that everything is free of Khums according to his own claim which is void of proof under any pretext.