The basic sum on which Huqúqu’lláh is payable is nineteen
mithqáls of gold. In other words, when money to the value of this sum hath been
acquired, a payment of Huqúq falleth due. Likewise Huqúq is payable when the
value, not the number, of other forms of property reacheth the prescribed
amount. Huqúqu’lláh is payable no more than once. A person, for instance, who
acquireth a thousand mithqáls of gold, and payeth the Huqúq, is not liable to
make a further such payment on this sum, but only on what accrueth to it
through commerce, business and the like. When this increase, namely the profit
realized, reacheth the prescribed sum, one must carry out what God hath
decreed. Only when the principal changeth hands is it once more subject to
payment of Huqúq, as it was the first time. The Primal Point hath directed that
Huqúqu’lláh must be paid on the value of whatsoever one possesseth; yet, in
this Most Mighty Dispensation, We have exempted the household furnishings, that
is such furnishings as are needed, and the residence itself.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Questions and Answers’; ‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
