On the Origins & Development of the Meaning of Zakat Suliman Bashear

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ONTHEORIGINSANDDEVELOPMENT OFTHEMEANING OFZAKAT IN EARLYISLAM

BY

SULIMANBASHEAR

Introduction

HEINFORMATION

providedbyMuslim sourcesonzakdtlsadaqa(poor-tax/rate,almsgiving),whicheventuallyemergedasoneof the"pillars"(arkdn)of classicalIslam,has been outlinedbymodern scholars. Whilethevoluntaryvs.obligatorynature ofzakdtlsadaqaand theirinterchangeableoccurrenceinthesesourceswereconsidered,it has alsobeen notedthat,inthe time of theProphet,thesewerestillvagueregulations and did notrepresenttaxesdemandedbyreligion.Widelycirculatedreportsconcerningtherefusalofcertain Bedouintribes topayzakdt aftertheProphet'sdeathastheyconsidered theiragreements withhimcancelledbythat,as wellas 'Umar'sinclinationtoagreewiththis,andthe factthatonly AbufBakrmadeitapermanentinstitution,werebroughtinsupport ofsuchanassessment.'The basicdifferencebetweensadaqa,whichwasprimarilyappliedtothesupererogatory, and theobligatory nature ofzakdt, hasalsobeennoted.2 And theeventualemergence ofalms as anobligatorydutyinIslam ledonescholar, H.Grimme, tothesuggestionthatMuhammad"shouldbetreated as asocialrather than areligiousreformer.

"3

R. Bell,inturn, gaveweight tothe fact thattheordertopayzakdtoccursin"Meccanpassages" ofthe Qur'anandnotedthat suchoccurrencecomes"onlyin the senseof almsand volun-tarygivingtothepoor, asmuchfor thepurification ofthe giver's

1

J.Schacht,s.v."Zakat"inEncyclopaediaofIslam,firstedition, IV,1202-4;H.A.R.GibbandJ.Kramers,eds., ShorterEncyclopaediaofIslam,Leiden1974,pp.654-5, and thesourcescitedtherein.

2

E.Lane,Arabic-EnglishLexicon,repr.Beirut1980, IV,p.1668.

3

H.Grimme,Mohammed,Miunster1892,quotedby TorAndrae,Mohammed,theManand HisFaith,London1936,pp.101-2;andR.Bell,TheOriginofIslamin itsChristianEnvironment,London1926, p.79.Arabica,tomeXL,1993

ZAKAT

85soulas for relief of theneedy.

"4

Concerningthe institution ofzakdt,which isnowhere regulated, J. Schachtcautiously pointedto thefact thatMuslim sourcesplaceit in Medina between theyears2and9A. H., while R.Bellsounds more confidentwhensayingthat "itsbeginning belongsto the firstyearortwoinMedina and wasmotivatedbythe circumstancesof thepoorerMuhajiriunand

necessitiesofthe state.

"5

Scholars also disagreedconcerningthesimilaritybetween andpossibleoriginsofzakdtandsadaqainparallelinstitutionsandcognatewords from thevocabularyof otherreligionsinthe area.R. Bellheld that "the word zakdt isSyriacand therefore Chris-tian",butJ.Schacht and othersexpressedthe view thatitwas bor-rowed fromJewishusage of Hebrew-Aramaic

zdktt.6

And the samewas heldconcerningsadaqaas a transliterationof the Hebrewseddkawhichoriginallymeant"honesty".We are also toldthat,asappliedby the Pharisees for whatthey considered the chiefdutyofthepiousIsraelites,namely almsgiving, theproper sense of thisword, which isvoluntary orspontaneous"charity",was stillretainedat the timeof the coming of Islamand elsewhere.7 Onescholar,H.P. Smith, held thatMuslimtazkiyain thesense of purificationofpropertycorresponds toasimilar notionexpressedinDeuteronomy14:28,though,later, zakdtemerged as aregular taxof theMuslim State.8C.C. Torrey, in turn,expressed theview thatzakdtandsadaqaare loanwords from theNorthSemiticlanguages,corresponding inparticular toAramaiczakuitandsidaktaandHebrewsidaka,respectively.The Aramaicwords, heheld,originallymeant"purity" and wereused byboth Jews andChris-tiansinthe sense of"virtuous conduct". Tothis he addedthe viewthat "thelatter term(sidakta)waswidely usedin Aramaicspeechtomeanalms."9

4

R.Bell, Introductionto theQur'dn,Edinburgh1953,p.166. Cf.alsoM.Hudgson, TheVentureof Islam,Chicago1974,p. 181.

5

J.Schacht, p.1203;R.Bell, ibid.

6

J.Schacht, p.1202; H.A.R.GibbandJ.H.Kramers, p.654.Compare,how-ever,with A.Jeffery,ForeignVocabularyof theQur'dn,Baroda1938, p.153,whereit isstated thatneitheroftheAramaic orSyriaccognatesseemtohaveevermeantalms,thoughthismeaningcouldeasilybederivedfromthem.

7

H.A.R.GibbandJ.H.Kramers,ibid.

8