Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on handling zakat, khums

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Tuesday, the 12th of Jumadi al-Thani. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed the handling of khums and zakat, and said: Since we have to act based on evidence from Quran and hadith, there is no such evidence that zakat should be given to the Immaculate Imam, peace be upon him. It is only said that we should pay the zakat. So, during the time of the Imams, peace be upon them, people did not ask permission from the Imams to pay zakat. Of course, during the reign of the Holy Prophet and Amirul Momineen, peace be upon them, delegates were sent to people to collect zakat.

His Eminence continued: But, regarding Khums, we are instructed to give all of it to the Infallible Imam, peace be upon him, and he will allocate half of the sum, which is the Imam’s share, according to his will, and would give the other half to Sadaat in need.

Regarding the scope of the authority of jurists over Islamic taxes in the period of occultation, the Marja said: The jurists’ authority over financial affairs and Sharia-based taxes are not in the way of ownership. In fact, the owner is the infallible Imam, as the noble tradition says: “He owns the excess, and it is upon him to compensate.” Of course, in the age of occultation, the completely qualified jurist is in charge of handling this matter.