Section: If a man claims to be a wayfarer (ibn sabil) and this is not known, it is not accepted except with evidence. If he claims need, and no wealth was known for him in the place where he is, his statement is accepted without evidence because the original status is the absence of wealth with him. If wealth is known for him in his home region, his claim to poverty is not accepted except with evidence, just as if a person were to claim indigence.

Section: In total, there are five [categories] who take [Zakat] even with wealth: the tax collector, the one whose heart is to be reconciled, the warrior (ghazi), the debtor for the sake of reconciling between people, and the wayfarer who has wealth in his home land. Five are not given except with need: the poor (faqir), the needy (miskin), the mukatab (indentured slave), the debtor [for his own interest] in a permissible matter, and the wayfarer. Four take a permanent acquisition, and they are not obligated to return anything in any circumstance: the poor, the needy, the tax collector, and the one whose heart is to be reconciled. Four take a non-permanent acquisition: the mukatab, the debtor, the warrior, and the wayfarer.

Section: Whoever travels for an act of disobedience and desires to return to his land shall not be given [Zakat] until he repents. If he repents, it is possible that it is permissible to pay him, because his return is not an act of disobedience, so it is similar to the return of others. Indeed, his return to his land might even be a cessation of disobedience and an abandonment of it, like the one who is undutiful to parents desiring to return to them, or the one fleeing from his creditor or his wife desiring to return to them. It is also possible that he should not be given, because the cause for that [travel] was disobedience, so he is like the debtor in a matter of disobedience.

1096 - Issue: He [the author] said: "He is not obligated to give to all of these categories, even if they are present; he is only obligated not to exceed them."

This is because the verse was only brought forth to clarify those to whom expenditure is permissible, not to make mandatory the expenditure to everyone, evidenced by the fact that it is not obligatory to generalize to every category by it. Allah the Exalted has mentioned in another verse its expenditure to a single category, as He, Glory be to Him, said: {If you disclose your charities, it is well; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, it is better for you.} And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Mu'adh when he sent him to Yemen: "Inform them that they have a charity taken from their wealthy and returned to their poor." It is agreed upon. He did not mention in the verse or in the narration anything other than a single category. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Qabisah when he undertook a debt burden: "Wait, Qabisah, until the charity comes to us, so we may order it for you." He mentioned paying it to one category, and he was among the debtors. He commanded the Banu Zurayq to pay their charity to Salamah bin Sakhr, as recorded by Abu Dawud, and he was a single person. Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) sent to him a small gold piece in its soil, and he divided it among those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and they are a single category. The reports regarding this are numerous, indicating that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not believe in every established charity that it must be paid to all categories, nor that they must be generalized with it; rather, he used to pay it to whoever was available from its eligible recipients. This is what is appropriate for the wisdom of the Law and its beauty, as it is not permissible for Allah, Glory be to Him and Exalted, to burden one upon whom a sheep, a sa' of wheat, a half-mithqal, or five dirhams has become due, to pay it to eighteen, twenty-one, or twenty-four persons from eight categories, with each three of them receiving an eighth of it. Typically, it is impossible for them to be found in a large region, and the ruler would be incapable of delivering the treasury's wealth to them in this manner despite its abundance. So how would Allah, Glory be to Him and Exalted, burden everyone upon whom Zakat is due to gather them?