The Portion of the Imam

Khums is classically divided into two halves. One half is the sahm al-sada, the portion of the descendants of the Prophet, distributed to those of his lineage who are in need and who, being barred from receiving zakat, are provided for through khums instead. The other half is the sahm al-Imam, the Portion of the Imam. In the absence of the awaited twelfth Imam, held by Twelver doctrine to be in occultation, this portion is entrusted to the most learned jurists, the grand marja, who administer it on the Imam's behalf.

This arrangement has profound institutional consequences. The revenue funds the seminaries of Najaf and Qom, supports students and scholars, and underwrites religious and charitable works, giving the senior Shia clergy a financial base answerable to the faithful rather than to governments. The believer typically pays khums to the marja they follow or that scholar's authorised agents, and the practice is thus central not only to Shia piety but to the independence and structure of Shia religious authority.