Question: When and how much zakat is obligatory on gold, silver and cash? Will you pay zakat by mixing cash and gold and silver? Also, if zakat is not obligatory on gold, then is it obligatory to pay zakat on silver?
Alhamdulillah...
Syllabus of Gold, Silver and Cash
If five ounces (about two hundred dirhams) of silver or 20 shekels (about 20 dinars) of gold are present throughout the year, one fortieth part (i.e. five dirhams of silver and half a dinar of gold) will be given as Zakat.
Similarly, if someone has so much money in cash that it is equal to fifty-two and a half tolas of silver or seven and a half tolas of gold and a year has passed on it, then two and a half percent of Zakat will be taken out of that amount.
As evidenced by the following hadiths:
📚 Narrated by Hazrat Jabir RA that the Prophet SAW
He said:
Les Fima dun khums awaq min al-warq Sadaqah
"Zakah is not obligatory on foil/silver less than five ounces (equivalent to two hundred dirhams)."
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 980)
(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 14162)
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 1794)
It is narrated from Hazrat Ali that the Holy Prophet
said to them:
"When you have two hundred dirhams and a year has passed on them, give five dirhams of them as zakat, and similarly if you have twenty dinars of gold for the whole year, half a dinar is zakat in it, if so ( That is, if these two conditions or one of them is not fulfilled, then Zakat is not obligatory.
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith No: 1573) Sahih)
📙 Let it be clear that although there is weakness in the chain of transmission of this hadith, but the evidence is that it is correct, and this problem is also proven by the consensus of the Ummah.
(See al-Ijmaa of Ibn al-Mundhir: p. 44, Musawat al-Ijmaa: 1-483)
It was understood from the blessed hadiths that,
Two conditions must be met for Zakat to be obligatory on gold, silver and cash.
1_ * When the amount of silver is 200 dirhams (i.e. fifty-two and a half tolas) or the same cash amount or more,
And gold twenty dinars (seven and a half tolas) or so much cash or more*
2_ And then a whole year should pass over them
Then Zakat will be obligatory on them, and on this property
Two and a half percent will be taken out as Zakat.
That is, two and a half rupees Zakat for one hundred rupees.
Zakat 25 rupees per thousand,
Two and a half thousand in one lakh,
📙 Collecting Gold and Silver for Zakat:
There is a difference of opinion among the scholars in creating the nisab of zakat by combining gold and silver for zakat.
However, gold is a different thing and silver is different.
The curriculum of both is also different and Zakat will be collected separately for both.
But if someone has so much silver that it does not reach the nisab and if he has so much cash that if both of them are combined, they would reach the nisab of zakat, then it is better that he should combine the two and pay zakat, in this the welfare of the poor and needy. Is,
And if there is so much gold that it does not reach the nisab, and there is enough cash with it that if both of them are combined, they would reach the nisab of zakat, then it is necessary that he should combine the two and pay zakat according to the nisab, because the original of the cash is is gold,
(And Allah knows best)
Now the problem is the cash flow.
Who should set the curriculum for cash? Gold or silver?
Because here the question arises that if a person has so much money that they reach the silver curriculum, but do not reach the gold curriculum, what should he do?
Scholars have two opinions about this
📙 First position..!
In fact, during the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, fifty-two and a half tolas of silver and seven and a half tolas of gold were equal.
But as the value of gold rose and silver fell over time,
So now it has become difficult that we should make the standard for the curriculum?
If we compare the above Zakat assets and see that there is Zakat on five camels, there is Zakat on forty goats, there is Zakat on five Vasq of dates or raisins, then we will know that gold is the closest to the value of all the Nisab of Zakat in this period.
not silver,
That is, the price of five camels and forty goats will be approximately (more or less) equivalent to four hundred dinars.
So how can it be that in the eyes of Shariat?
The owner of four camels or forty-nine goats should be poor, and Zakat is not obligatory on him.
(Because there is no Zakat on 39 goats)
But if he has cash equivalent to fifty-two and a half tolas of silver, with which he cannot even buy five kankris, then how will Zakat be obligatory on him?
And how can this low value be considered rich?
📚 Shah Waliullah writes in his book Hajjatullah al-Balagha:
Five ounces of silver has been prescribed as the Nisab-e-Zakat because this amount is sufficient for the needs of a family throughout the year provided that prices are moderate in most areas and if you examine the areas where prices are moderate, you will realize this fact. will be done.
The question arises, can a family in an Islamic country still spend a whole year with fifty or more or less Egyptian (currency) and Saudi Riyal or Pakistani and Indian rupees?
But can it be a month or a week?
On the contrary, in oil-producing countries where the standard of living has become quite high, this amount is insufficient even for a day's needs of an average family, so why can the owner of this amount become rich in the eyes of Shariat?
This is very unlikely!
[08:38, 4/1/2023] +92 318 6448326: This is very unlikely!
Therefore, it is appropriate that we consider gold as the original for measuring the amount of zakat in our era. Although there is an interest of the poor and the deserving in the setting of the Nisab of Zakat from silver, it also burdens the owners of wealth. It is obvious that the payers of zakat are not only the big capitalists and the rich, but the common people of the Muslim Ummah are the payers of zakat.
And anyway, rupees are a receipt for us, for gold, the real thing is gold!
(Fiqh al-Zakah: Volume 1, pp. 352 to 354)
The second position
On the other hand, the position of some, rather most scholars, is that the Nisab-e-Zakat will be determined by calculating silver.
Most of the scholars are of the opinion that before the issuance of notes, since the silver rupee was common in our country, therefore, by considering silver as the base, the value of silver should be taken from the current price of silver, this will be the limit and its It is also supported by the fact that even today in Saudi Arabia, paper money (notes) is called Waraqah and the same word is used for silver, and it is also important to declare silver as the currency for cash rupees in the sense that Allah's right should not be our responsibility, therefore, all possible precautions are necessary in this important religious duty.
(Problems of Trade and Transactions: pp. 318, 319)
All this means,
1. First of all, the requirement of caution is to pay Zakat according to the silver of cash, so that there is no doubt.
And it is obvious that whoever has accumulated so much money in spite of so many needs that if the year has passed on it, he can spend some of it in the form of Zakat.
2. The second is that the benefit of the poor is also in this.
3. That people spend even on necessities for no reason, what difference will it make if some pay Zakat in the way of Allah?
4. But despite this, if a person makes gold a ritual, then we cannot prohibit it.
(((And Allah knows best)))