Understanding khums

Khums — literally “one fifth” — is an obligatory religious due, established in the Qurʾan (al-Anfāl 8:41) and in the practice of the Ahl al-Bayt (ʿa). Several categories of wealth carry khums: mined wealth, buried treasure, what is recovered from the sea, lawful wealth mixed with unlawful, and others.

For almost everyone, though, the category that matters is arbāḥ al-makāsib — the surplus of a year's earnings left over once the year's living costs have been met. That surplus is what the calculator reckons, and what the rest of this guide is about.

Khums is worked out once a year, against a date you keep. If you have never set one, your khums date is the day you first received income you were free to use — your first pay, or the day you began earning. Many people move it, with their marjaʿ's permission, to a date that is easier to remember. What matters is that the date stays the same year after year.

On that date you look at what is left. Income already spent during the year on your genuine living costs carries no khums; what is still sitting there, unspent, is the surplus.

If you have never paid khums before, do not try to reconstruct years of it on your own. Contact I.M.A.M. — they can settle past years with you and fix a date going forward.

Anything you still hold on your khums date that came from income khums has not yet been paid on:

Once khums has been paid on a sum, it is never paid on it again. Only what is new since your last khums date is reckoned.

Broadly, what you actually spent on living, and what you live with:

This is the question that catches people out, and it is the one a calculator is least able to settle.

Expenses are exempt because they are maʾūna — what it genuinely costs you to live in a manner befitting your circumstances. Spending that goes beyond that, into extravagance, is not maʾūna, and a number of marājiʿ hold that khums remains due on it even though the money has already gone.

Where that line falls is personal. A family holiday, a meal out, a generous gift may be entirely ordinary for one household and extravagant for another. Nobody can rule on it from the outside, and a website certainly cannot.

So the non-essential spending box in the calculator is there for you to use if you have already concluded that something you spent this year went beyond your means. If you have not concluded that, leave it blank and put the question to I.M.A.M. or your marjaʿ's office. It is worth asking rather than guessing.

A debt you owe on your khums date can generally be set against your surplus where it was taken on for costs that this year's income was meant to cover.

Long-term debts are treated differently: with a mortgage or a student loan it is usually the instalments falling due that are counted, not the whole outstanding balance. If your debts are substantial, or the money was borrowed for something other than living costs, ask rather than assume — this is an area where the rulings are detailed.

Khums is paid in two halves. Sahm al-Imam, the share of the Imam (ʿaj), goes to the marjaʿ or their authorised representative to be spent on the affairs of the faith. Sahm al-Sādāt, the share of the sādāt, belongs to descendants of the Prophet (ṣ) who are in need.

When you pay through the ALI Center page, the whole amount goes to I.M.A.M., who represent the marjaʿiyya in North America. I.M.A.M. releases the Sahm al-Imam back to the center for our programming. The Sahm al-Sādāt stays with I.M.A.M. and is distributed by them — it does not come to ALI Center. I.M.A.M. issues the receipt confirming your obligation has been fulfilled.

You are free to handle the sādāt share yourself. It may be given to any eligible organization, or directly to sādāt you know to be struggling and too embarrassed to ask. If that is what you would rather do, pay the Imam's share here and direct the other half where you judge best.

Khums is a matter of taqlīd: you follow the rulings of the marjaʿ you have chosen. On the shape of it — one fifth, once a year, on the surplus — the marājiʿ agree. On the details they do not always, and this guide has pointed out the places where that matters most.

Nothing here is a fatwa. It is a plain summary meant to help you prepare, and where it and your marjaʿ differ, your marjaʿ is right.