Khums

One-fifth tax in Islam In Islam, khums (Arabic: خُمْس [xums]) is a tax on Muslims which obligates them to pay one-fifth (20%) of their acquired wealth from the spoils of war and, according to most Muslim jurists, other specified types of income, towards various designated beneficiaries. In Islamic legal terminology, "spoils of war" (al-ghanima) refers to property and wealth looted by the Muslim army after battling with non-Muslims or raiding them. Khums is the first Islamic tax, which was imposed in 2 AH/624 CE, after the Battle of Badr. It is separate from other Islamic taxes such as zakat and jizya. It is treated differently in Sunni and Shia Islam; key topics of debate include the types of wealth subject to khums, the methods of its collection and distribution, and the categories of recipients (asnāf). Historically, one-fifth of the spoils of war (i.e., the khums) was placed at the disposal of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who distributed it among himself, his close relatives, orphans, the needy and travelers (the remaining four-fifth of the spoils went to soldiers of the Muslim army who attacked the non-Muslims). After Muhammad's death, disagreement arose about how to use