Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 11054 — Reports from Abu Bakr, Umar

Abdullah bin al-Mustawrid said: I heard Abu Qilabah narrating this to Umar bin Abdul Aziz: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) sent out the zakah collectors (to various towns) and ordered them to sell the jadha'ah for forty, the hiqqah for thirty, the ibn labun for twenty and the bint makhad for ten. So the zakah collectors set off and sold them at the price Abu Bakr had fixed, and then returned. Then, when he was about to send them out again the following year, they said: If we wished, we could increase this price somewhat. He said: Add ten for each age. Then the following year, when he was about to send them out, they said: If we wished, we could increase it. Then when Umar al-Faruq (may Allah be pleased with him) became caliph, he sent the agents out (to various towns) at the last price fixed by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. When the following year came, the agents said: If we wished to make some increase, we could increase it. He said: Add ten for each age. Then when he sent those agents out the next year, they again said: If we wished to make some increase, we could increase it. He said: No, there is to be no increase now. Then when Uthman al-Ghani (may Allah be pleased with him) became caliph, he sent out his agents at the last price fixed by Umar. When the following year came, the agents said: If we wished to make some increase, we could increase it. He said: Add ten for each age. Then when the next year came, they (again) said: If we wished to make some increase, we could increase it. He said: No. Then when Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) became ruler, he sent (them) at the last price fixed by Uthman al-Ghani. When the following year came, the agents said: If we wished to make some increase in it, we could. He said: Add ten for each age. Then the next year they said: If we wished to make some increase, we could increase it. He said: Take the obligatory animals according to their ages, then give them names and announce them (make them publicly known), then sell them promptly; whatever they (the buyers) manage to reduce (let them reduce), and whatever you are able to increase the price by, increase it. The narrator Abdullah said: I saw that Umar bin Abdul Aziz did not see any harm at all in this. He said to Abu Qilabah: How was the zakah of sheep dealt with? He said: Zakah used to be collected and distributed among the poor of the villages (and the desert), until Abd al-Malik bin Marwan gave an order about it, and it was divided into fifths, and he assigned one fifth of it to the poor, and that has continued to this day.