He said: Is it the highest food of your family, or the food of (10) the people? It is reported from 'Ali, al-Hasan, al-Sha'bi, Qatadah, Malik, and Abu Thawr that he may provide them lunch or dinner. This is a consensus on the interpretation of what is in the verse as bread, and because he has fed the needy from the average food of his family, so it is sufficient, just as if he gave him grain. It differs from Zakah in two respects: firstly, that the obligation upon him is a tenth of the grain, and a tenth of the grain is grain, so the obligation is considered. Here, the obligation is feeding, and bread is closer to it. Secondly, the payment of Zakah is intended for sustenance throughout the entire year, so it requires that it be stored, hence it is considered to be in a state that permits (11) its storage for a year. Expiation is intended to satisfy the need of one's day, and for this reason, it is estimated by what is generally sufficient for his day (12). Bread is closer to that because it has spared him the burden of grinding and baking it. Once this is established, if he gives the needy (13) two Iraqi ratls of bread, it is sufficient, because it is not less than a mudd, and that is estimated by the Damascene ratl, which is six hundred dirhams, five uqiyyahs and a seventh of an uqiyyah. If he grinds a mudd and bakes it, [and hands over its bread] (14), it is sufficient. Ahmad stated this explicitly. Likewise, if (15) he hands over the flour of a mudd to the needy person, it is sufficient. If he hands over the flour without measuring its grain, Ahmad said: It is sufficient for him to weigh a ratl and a third, and it is not sufficient for him to produce a mudd of flour by measurement; because it decreases (16) by grinding, so he obtains (17) less than a mudd of grain in a mudd of flour (18). If he adds to the flour beyond a mudd, to the extent that it is known to be the equivalent of a mudd of grain, it is permitted. Al-Khiraqi's statement (19): "A mudd of flour." It is possible he meant producing it by weight, as Ahmad mentioned, and it is possible he meant a mudd of wheat that he ground and then produced its flour, and it is possible he meant producing what he knows to be a mudd of grain, for the reasons we mentioned. His statement regarding flour must be understood...