What is the philosophy behind the obligation of paying Khums?

One of the financial payments in Islam is “Khums”. Khums in dictionaries is defined as one fifth. Of course there are some jurisprudential discussions in this regard like to what subjects, Khums is applied, and we do not mention them here.

Allah said in chapter Anfal verse 41:

وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّمَا غَنِمْتُم مِّن شَيْءٍ فَأَنَّ لِلّهِ خُمُسَهُ وَلِلرَّسُولِ وَلِذِي الْقُرْبَى وَالْيَتَامَى وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ إِن كُنتُمْ آمَنتُمْ بِاللّهِ وَمَا أَنزَلْنَا عَلَى عَبْدِنَا يَوْمَ الْفُرْقَانِ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ وَاللّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“And know that one fifth of whatever you take as spoils belong to Allah, the messenger, kinsmen of the messenger, the orphans, the needy, and the destitute traveler; if you believe in Allah and what we sent down to our worshiper on the day of victory, the day when the two armies met. Allah has power over all things”.

The word of “”غنیمۀ which has been mentioned in this verse is described as everything that you have obtained it as profit.

The ways in which this financial obligation is spent are different, some parts of that are spent for the needy people that they are from the generations of the Prophet of Islam and the Imams(they are called Sayyed) instead of Zakat, because the obligatory Zakat must not be given to the Sayyed person. Some other parts of Khums are spent for the religious issues like building the mosques, publishing the religious books and distributing them among Muslims, equipping the armies, building the seminary schools(the schools in which the religious sciences are taught there), helping those who are learning Islam and they are propagating this religion etc.

Khums was being paid to the Prophet of Islam and after that to the infallible Imams and after the occultation of the twelfth Imam, it is given to the Maraji( those who are very expert in Islamic sciences, who are just and they are as the vicegerents of the twelfth Imam and they issue Fatwa or religious decrees) and these religious scholars and experts, spend Khums in ways that the twelfth Imam is definitely pleased for these ways of spending, and we mentioned some of those ways.

It is narrated that our Imams have said that Khums is as our help in implementing the religion of Allah.

And the other philosophy of Khums can be that it is a way for perfection of mankind, because when a person pays Zakat and Khums and other financial payments in Islam, apart from those mentioned benefits, it helps that person to exercise through these obligations, not being so much eager and attached to material properties, and because it must be paid only for the sake of Allah, it adds to its spiritual aspects.

And at the end we mention a Narration from Imam Reza peace be upon him who said:

“The payment of Khums, is the key for your livelihood (to be more) and the means for your sins to be forgiven.”

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Sources:

Islampedia.ir

Pasokhgoo.ir