The Bait al-Mal serves as the treasury of the Islamic government, and various rights and obligations are associated with this legal and jurisprudential term as outlined in narrations and the writings of jurists. Despite the frequent usage of the term Bait al-Mal in religious texts and jurisprudential materials, along with significant implications arising from it, a clear definition of this term has yet to be established. In some scholarly writings, the Bait al-Mal of the Imam is considered distinct from that of the Muslim community, leading to different responsibilities and tasks being attributed to the two. The primary reason for considering the Bait al-Mal of Muslims independently from that of the Imam is the differing sources of revenue for each. In this paper, we examine the narrations related to blood money (diyeh) and inheritance to explore the unity or duality of these two concepts. Ultimately, we conclude that these two terms—at least in the context of inheritance and blood money—reflect a unified concept. The key aspect in both the Bait al-Mal of the Imam and the Bait al-Mal of the Muslims is the identical nature of the expenditures and allocations, the shared identity of those managing these funds, and the manner of administration, which is common to both.

Keywords: Bait al-Mal, public funds, Bait al-Mal of Muslims, Bait al-Mal of the Imam, funds of the Imam