Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
In this paper, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi examines the impact of khums on meeting the financial needs of the Muslim society.
In Part I of this series, we used terminology, Qur’anic verses, Sunni and Shi’a hadiths, and exegetes’ commentaries to described khums as more than merely defining war booties in the Qur’an and as something that has been collected by the Prophet (s) and Imams (a). Part II offered more hadiths khums and an account of its practice in ear ly Islam. In this part, the ruling of khums during the occultation of Imam Mahdi (a) will be studied. A few writers who are not familiar with fiqh have suggested that the Shi‘a are exempted from paying khums in this period. However, a glimpse of fiqh books, especially the books written in recent centuries, shows that this issue has been dealt with in a very detailed way by the some of the great jurists. In what follows, the hadiths that have been taken to suggest that khums has been forgiven will be studied, as well as the state of khums in the first centuries, and the basis for allocating khums for needy Sayyids.
