Ibn Majah

Benefits and Issues:

➊ Placing a cheetah skin on a horse’s saddle and riding on it is prohibited because it is an expression of arrogance and is a custom of non-Muslim non-Arabs.

➋ There is no benefit in hunting predatory animals because their meat is not eaten. And to kill them merely to obtain their skins for the sake of showing off is oppression.

➌ It is permissible to kill any predatory animal that poses a threat to people’s lives or property, such as when certain lions, etc., become man-eaters.

Benefits and Issues:
From the collection of all narrations regarding gold, several points become clear.

➊ Firstly, its permissibility is certainly established, but the forms of its use prevalent in our society are highly questionable. For example, the desire to make and use jewelry is widespread, but very little attention is paid to the obligation of paying its zakat; only a small percentage of women observe this. It is obvious that such jewelry becomes nothing but fuel for Hellfire—may Allah protect us from it.

➋ Secondly, women from affluent families are so fond of making new jewelry that they consider it necessary to have a new set of jewelry made for every family event and wedding, just as they do with clothes. This is why hundreds of tolas of gold lie in the homes of the wealthy in the form of jewelry, whose total value exceeds billions and perhaps even reaches trillions. In this way, such a vast amount of the nation’s wealth remains unutilized. If at the very least, zakat were regularly paid on this immense wealth, it could greatly benefit the poor masses, and the harms of its stagnation could be somewhat reduced.

➌ Thirdly, on the occasion of marriage, it has become considered necessary to make jewelry according to one’s means, and a wedding is unimaginable without it. This notion has also placed people of lesser means in great difficulty.

The solution to all these problems is precisely what is stated in this hadith and in other narrations: that the use of gold should be minimized. A few tolas of gold (less than seven and a half tolas) are exempt from zakat. Whoever possesses seven and a half tolas or more should be diligent in paying zakat. In this way, it should not be considered essential for marriage, and efforts should be made in this regard as well.

And upon us is only to convey (the message).