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Rada'a (poor quality): the rules on giving poor goods in zakat, on exchanging good for poor, and on the description of goods in contracts

الرداءة

Rada'a in the lexicon is the opposite of goodness: baseness and defect. 1 One may not give poor goods in place of good ones due for zakat, and the mean is to be taken. 1 2 Most jurists hold that good and poor goods of the riba kinds are alike, so exchange of equal weight is allowed and excess is forbidden. 2 Several schools require the quality or poorness to be stated in a salam contract, and the Malikis, Hanbalis and some Shafi'is require matching quality in a transfer of debt. 2 3 The lender need not accept poorer goods in place of good ones in a loan. 3

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At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Trade and financeWorship and the pillars

Summary

Rada'a in the lexicon is the opposite of goodness: baseness and defect. 1 One may not give poor goods in place of good ones due for zakat, and the mean is to be taken. 1 2 Most jurists hold that good and poor goods of the riba kinds are alike, so exchange of equal weight is allowed and excess is forbidden. 2 Several schools require the quality or poorness to be stated in a salam contract, and the Malikis, Hanbalis and some Shafi'is require matching quality in a transfer of debt. 2 3 The lender need not accept poorer goods in place of good ones in a loan. 3

People and things also explored

Herbage and pasture (kala')· Sufficiency (kifaya)· Nisab (wealth threshold)· Tayyib (purity and lawfulness)· Zakat (alms tax)· Al-Madina Souq, Aleppo· Bazaar of Tabriz· Khan el-Khalili

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8695
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8696
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8697
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Rada'a (poor quality): the rules on giving poor goods in zakat, on exchanging good for poor, and on the description of goods in contracts”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/rada-a-fiqh/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Herbage and pasture (kala')

Kala' means herbage, dry or green; in law it is grass that grows without human work. The jurists agree that grass growing on open land such as valleys, mountains and unowned ground is shared, and no one may forbid another to take it or to graze his animals there, on the hadith that Muslims share three things: water, fire and herbage. Grass on owned land belongs to its owner, who may bar entry, though no one may be stopped from taking grass he cannot find elsewhere; the Malikis allow grazing on unplanted ground and do not allow grass in unplanted land to be stopped unless a field nearby is at risk. The imam may reserve unowned land for the herds of the poor-tax and the sadaqa and for the weak, according to the Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis and the sounder Shafi'i view, and most jurists allow grazing in the sanctuary of Mecca.