Zakat

1. What is zakat?

• It has a most important place among the five great duties of Islam; it is the unique method Islam has shown to remove the suffering of the poor.

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2. The importance of zakat – the Quran and hadith

A warning to those who do not give zakat

• (9:34) – meaning: For those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in Allah's path – a painful punishment.
• (Tabarani) – meaning: If a people withhold zakat, Allah will test them with famine.
• (Hakim) – meaning: If a people withhold zakat, Allah will withhold the rain from them.

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3. The benefits of zakat (8)

1. The giver's heart is purified; he is freed from greed and saved from the low life of "money is everything" → he serves society with compassion.
2. The poor person's heart is also purified; he is freed from diseases of the heart such as envy and hatred → he prays for the progress of the wealthy.
3. A spirit of gratitude to Allah grows; it is a way of protecting blessings – (14:7) – meaning: if you are grateful, I will surely give you more.
4. Mutual love, shared responsibility and unity grow in society.
5. Large economic inequality does not arise.
6. Crimes caused by poverty, such as theft and robbery, decrease → social security.
7. Economic growth – to keep their wealth from shrinking, the wealthy invest it in useful ways.
8. A solution to unemployment – capital for those who have none; vocational training for those who need it.

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4. Zakat is a collective duty

• Verse 9:60 names those who work to collect zakat as one of the groups entitled to it → collecting it from individuals and giving it to those entitled is the work of the community.
• 9:103 – a command to collect zakat from the wealthy.
• When the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh (RA) to Yemen (meaning): "It is to be taken from their rich and given back to their poor" (Bukhari).
• The Prophet ﷺ and the caliphs sent people to collect zakat.

Benefits of carrying it out collectively

• No wealthy person can escape the duty.
• The poor's self-respect is protected.
• Large programmes to end poverty can be planned.
• Everyone who needs care can be cared for.
• Attention can also be given to social welfare work.

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5. Conditions for zakat to become due (7)

1. Being a Muslim
2. Being free
3. Owning the wealth – zakat is not wajib on public property; but a guardian looking after the property of a child who has not reached puberty, or of a person of unsound mind, must pay zakat on it even though it is not his own.
4. Reaching the nisab – the minimum amount at which zakat becomes due = nisab; it differs according to the type of wealth.
5. Completion of a year (hawl) – a lunar year, counted from when the wealth came into his possession. For grain, fruit, buried treasure and the like, a year need not pass – zakat is due as soon as it is received.
6. The wealth must be able to grow
7. It must be in excess of basic needs

The fards of zakat (2)

1. Making the intention (niyyah)
2. Giving it to those entitled

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6. Wealth on which zakat is due, and the nisab

(1) Livestock – sheep/goats, cattle, camels

There is no zakat on livestock used for work such as pulling carts or ploughing.

(2) Grain

• It must be produced (grown), able to be stored, and a staple food → such as rice (paddy) and wheat.
• Nisab = 5 wasqs ≈ 675 kg; for paddy stored with its husk, double (1350 kg).
• Note:
  • a) Several harvests within a year → zakat each time; if each does not reach the nisab separately, they are added together.
  • b) Two different grains are not added together (e.g. wheat + rice).
  • c) Different varieties of the same grain are counted together (e.g. local rice + samba rice).

(3) Fruit

• Dates and grapes – the same rules as for grain (including the nisab).

(4) Minerals – gold and silver

• a) All items of one kind are counted together for the nisab (necklace, bangles, gold biscuits, pendant, bowl).
• b) There is no zakat on jewellery in use; there is zakat on ornaments kept as extra savings.
• c) Gold and silver vessels are liable to zakat.
• d) If another metal is mixed in, it is deducted before working out the nisab.

(5) Money

• Starting nisab = the value of 85 grams of gold.
• (There is also the view that the nisab of silver should be taken for money.)

(6) Trade goods

• The same nisab as money.
• a) If the nisab was not reached at the start of the year but was reached at its end, zakat becomes due.
• b) The nisab is based on that day's market price (which may be higher or lower than the purchase price).

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7. Those entitled to zakat – eight groups

• When a man asked for zakat, the Prophet ﷺ said (meaning): "Allah was not pleased for a prophet or anyone else to decide about zakat; He Himself decided and divided it into eight parts" (Abu Dawud).
• Verse (9:60) says the same.

8. Those not entitled to zakat (5)

1. One who has sufficient income
2. Slaves
3. The Prophet's ﷺ family line (Banu Hashim, Banu al-Muttalib)
4. Those whom the zakat-payer is obliged to support (wife, children, mother and father)
5. Non-Muslims

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Quick revision

• Zakat = purity, progress, growth; a share fixed in wealth.
• Joined with prayer (2:43, 24:56); mercy (7:156); help (22:40–41); people of Paradise (23:4); the community's quality (9:71).
• Warnings: 9:34; famine (Tabarani); rain withheld (Hakim).
• A collective duty: 9:60 ('amil), 9:103, Mu'adh – Yemen (Bukhari).
• 7 conditions; 2 fards (niyyah, giving to those entitled).
• Nisab: sheep 40, cattle 30, camels 5; grain 5 wasqs ≈ 675 kg (paddy in husk 1350); gold 20 mithqal = 85 g (1/40); silver 200 dirhams = 595 g (1/40); money = the value of 85 g of gold.
• 8 groups: faqir, miskin, 'amil, mu'allafat al-qulub, riqab, gharimun, fi sabil Allah, ibn as-sabil (9:60).