and the needy, and the wayfarer, and they dropped the share of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, upon his death, as well as the share of his kin. Malik said: Fay' (booty taken without fighting) and the fifth are one and the same; they are placed into the public treasury (Bayt al-Mal). Ibn al-Qasim said: It reached me from someone I trust that Malik said: The Imam gives to the relatives of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, as he sees fit. Al-Thawri said: The Imam places the fifth (20) wherever Allah the Almighty has shown him. As for our position, it is the saying of Allah the Almighty: {And know that anything you take as war booty, then for Allah is its fifth and for the Messenger and for the near relative and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer}. The share of Allah and the Messenger is one. This was stated by 'Ata' and al-Sha'bi. Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and others said: His saying: {then for Allah is its fifth} is an opening to the speech, meaning that the mention of Allah the Almighty is to open the speech by His name (21) as a blessing, not to assign Him a separate share, for to Allah the Almighty belongs the world and the Hereafter. It has been narrated from Ibn 'Umar and Ibn 'Abbas that they said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, used to divide the fifth into five (22). What Abu al-'Aliyah mentioned is something that no opinion points to, nor does any analogy (Qiyas) require it, and it should not be resorted to except by a valid text (Nass) that must be accepted. We do not know of any authentic report regarding this, other than his statement, so the apparent meaning of the text and the statement and action of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, shall not be abandoned for the sake of the statement of Abu al-'Aliyah. As for what Abu Hanifah said, it contradicts the apparent meaning of the verse; for Allah the Almighty named something for His Messenger and his kin, and assigned them a right in the fifth, just as He named [shares] for the remaining three categories. So whoever contradicts that has contradicted the text of the Book. As for the allocation by Abu Bakr and 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, of the share of the near relative to the cause of Allah, this was mentioned to Ahmad, and he remained silent and shook his head, and did not adopt that view; rather, he held that the statement of Ibn 'Abbas and those who agreed with him is more appropriate, because it conforms (23) to the Book of Allah the Almighty and the Sunnah of His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him; for when Ibn 'Abbas was asked about the share of the near relative, he said: "We used to claim that it was ours, but our people refused that for us."
(20) In M: "and al-Hasan". (21) Omitted from B. (22) Extracted by Imam Ahmad, in: Al-Musnad 2/71. On the authority of Ibn 'Umar. And al-Bayhaqi, in: The chapter on explaining the expenditure of war booty in the beginning of Islam... from the Book of the Division of Fay' and Ghanima. Al-Sunan al-Kubra 6/293. On the authority of Ibn 'Abbas. (23) In the original, A, and B: "limuwafaqati" (because it conforms to).
