The mann: a unit of weight, and reminding a recipient of one's favour

Mann in the lexicon has several senses: a favour, the counting of services, a measure, a cut, and the food from heaven. Jurists take it in two ways: its legal measure, and reminding others of a favour one has done. ¹

The Hanafis hold that a mudd is two rutls, a rutl is half a mann, and a mann is six hundred dirhams; the mudd and the mann are each a quarter of a sa'. Al-Rafi'i fixed the five wasqs of the basic subsistence in mann, and the Damascene rutl was found equal to the great mann. ²

When God confers, the reminder is to make the creature grateful; when a servant does so, counting favours and reproaching them is a major sin, and it voids the reward of charity. The Qur'an and the Sunna confirm it, and the Sunna says the one who reminds will not be spoken to by God on the Day of Rising. ^{2 3 4}

A kind word and a prayer for the one who asks may be better than a gift followed by harm, since a good word is charity. Jurists differ on whether the reward is lost in whole or only in part; the first is the sounder view. ^{3 4}

Most jurists hold that a person may refuse a gift even when it is needed for a duty, so he may perform the dry ablution if refused water. The Shafi'is hold that a wife need not accept maintenance from one who gives it, because of the obligation it brings. ⁵

All agree that the imam may free adult captives of war as a favour if he sees good in it. ⁵