Iqtiyat (the staple food)

اقتيات

Iqtiyat in the language means eating the staple food (qut), which is what keeps a person alive, such as wheat and rice. Staple foods are those fit to sustain bodies on a regular basis, unlike things that give only occasional sustenance. The jurists use the word in its lexical sense; al-Dusuqi defines a staple as what sustains the body so that it does not decay when one is limited to it. Foods in general are a wider category than staples. The jurists treat the staple in three places: zakat, since there is no disagreement that zakat is due on crops and fruit that are staple and storable; the sale of ribawi goods, where the majority do not count being a staple as the cause of riba, but the Malikis do, together with storability; and hoarding, where the jurists agree that hoarding staples is forbidden, most of them holding it unlawful, and most hold that hoarding applies only to staples. ¹