The Ruling on the Spoils of War

And then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, gives the ruling regarding how the spoils of war are divided. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

Know that whatever you obtain of war booty — indeed, for Allah is one-fifth of it, and for the Messenger, and for near relatives, and the orphans, the needy, and the stranded traveller, if you have believed in Allah and in what We sent down upon Our servant on the day of criterion, the day when the two armies met — and Allah, over all things, is competent. So the ruling regarding the spoils of war is as follows: they are divided into five portions, five equal portions. Four of those five portions are distributed among the fighters — so eighty per cent, if converted to a percentage, of the spoils of war are split among the fighters; the foot soldier receives one share, and the horsemen, the cavalry, receive three shares each. The remaining twenty per cent is then divided into five portions, so we are talking about four per cent each: four per cent goes to Allah, four per cent goes to the Messenger of Allah, four per cent goes to the near relatives, four per cent goes to the orphans, four per cent goes to the poor, and four per cent goes to the traveller.^† Now, the portion that goes to Allah and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is distributed in what is needed by the Muslims, such as masājid, or paving roads, or whatever — it is up to the imām of the Muslims to distribute that. So these are the rulings regarding the distribution of the booty.