encompass the purchase being asked about, he would not have been answering him. It is not permissible to exclude the specific cause [of the revelation] from the generality of the wording so that the question remains without an answer. It has been narrated from Jabir that he said: "When the zakat collector comes, pay him your zakat, but do not buy it back, for they used to say: 'Buy it,' and I would say: 'It is for Allah.'" And from Ibn 'Umar that he said: "Do not buy the purifier of your wealth." Furthermore, purchasing it constitutes a means toward retrieving something of it, because the poor person feels shy toward him and does not bargain over its price; he might even lower it for him, hoping he will pay him another charity. He might also know that if he does not sell it to him, he will take it back from him, or he might imagine that. Anything that leads to this should be avoided, just as if he had stipulated that he sell it to him. It is also a pretext for paying out the value [of the zakat] in cash, and he is prohibited from that. As for the hadith they cite, we agree with it, and that is that it returns to him by inheritance; this is not the subject of the dispute. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr said: "All scholars say: if it returns to him by inheritance, it is wholesome for him, except for Ibn 'Umar and al-Hasan ibn Hayy." Sale is not in the meaning of inheritance, because ownership in inheritance is established by legal ruling without his choice, and it is not a means to anything of what we mentioned. The other hadith is mursal (disconnected) and general, while our hadith is specific and authentic; thus, acting upon it is more appropriate in every respect.

Section: If necessity demands purchasing one's own charity, such as when the obligatory portion is a part of an animal from which the poor person cannot benefit in its specific form, and he finds no one to purchase it except the owner of the remainder of it, and if someone else were to purchase it, the owner would be harmed by an undesirable partnership; or if the obligation in the fruits of palm trees or vines consists of grapes and dates, and the zakat collector needs to sell them before harvesting, the Qadi has mentioned that it is permissible to sell them to the owner of the property in this instance. The same applies to the first case, and in every place where necessity demands purchasing it; for the prohibition of purchasing in the area of consensus was only to prevent harm to the poor person, and the harm to him in preventing the sale here is greater, so preventing that harm by permitting the sale is more appropriate.