The nisab of zakat on money is the value of 85 grams of gold or 595 grams of silver. If your money reaches either nisab and a full lunar year passes on it, one-fortieth of it is due, that is 2.5%. To find the value of the nisab in riyals today, use the Qatar Charity zakat calculator.
- The nisab is the value of 85 grams of gold or 595 grams of silver.
- If your money reaches the silver nisab but not the gold one, zakat is due.
- The amount due is one-fortieth: divide your money by 40.
- Permissible profits are added to the capital for zakat.
- Interest is not zakatable; zakat is due on the capital alone.
Is the nisab of money measured by gold or by silver?
The nisab of money is measured by the value of either the gold or the silver nisab, not by gold alone. If your money is below the value of 85 grams of gold but reaches the value of 595 grams of silver, zakat is due on it once a lunar year has passed.
Banknotes are neither gold nor silver, but they serve the same purpose as currency. On the nisab of zakat on money, a few scholars measured them by gold in all cases, while the majority used the lesser of the two nisabs, as explained in the fatwa Silver has its own Nisaab. If your money is below both nisabs, no zakat is due until it reaches one of them and a new lunar year passes, as stated in the fatwa An amount of money equal to nisaab should be possessed for a whole lunar year.
How do you calculate zakat on money?
Divide the money that has reached the nisab and been held for a full lunar year by 40. The result is the zakat due, which is one-fortieth, or 2.5%, of the money.
So someone who has held 40,000 riyals for a full lunar year pays 1,000 riyals. This method is set out in the fatwa How to pay zakat on money (in Arabic), and the 2.5% rate covers “gold and silver and other currency notes that are like gold and silver and tradable items”, as in the fatwa Why Zakah is payable at a rate of 2,5% on most types of wealth. If your money comes from a monthly salary, read Zakat on Monthly Salary: When It Is Due and How to Calculate, and to know when the year starts and whether you may pay early, read When to Pay Zakat.
What if your money falls below the nisab during the year?
There are two views. The Shafi’is and Hanbalis require the nisab to remain throughout the year, so if it falls below during the year, the year starts again. The Hanafis look only at the start and end of the year: if the money reaches the nisab at both, zakat is due even if it fell below in between.
The Hanafi view is the more cautious one, as the fatwa The nisab of money is measured by the value of the gold or silver nisab (in Arabic) concludes. So if your money reaches the nisab at the end of the year, pay its zakat, and a drop below the nisab during the year does not change that.
On which kinds of wealth is zakat due?
Zakat is due on livestock (camels, cattle and sheep), on dates and raisins, on staple crops that are eaten and stored (such as corn and rice), on currency (gold, silver and the money that takes their place), on minerals and buried treasure, and on trade goods.
Vegetables, precious stones, horses and similar things are not zakatable, though scholars differ on some of these details, as in the fatwa The kinds of wealth on which zakat is due (in Arabic) and the Islamweb article Holdings subject to Zakat. Gold has its own nisab by weight and karat, explained in How to Calculate Zakat on Gold: Nisab, Karats and Payment.
How much zakat is due on bank deposits?
Zakat on bank deposits is one-fortieth, or 2.5%, like all money, and permissible profits are added to the capital when the total reaches the nisab and a lunar year passes.
The reason is that paper currency takes the rulings of gold and silver in zakat. The Islamic Fiqh Academy, meeting in Amman in 1407 AH (1986), decided that paper currencies are money with the full quality of a medium of exchange, as quoted in the fatwa Zakat on bank deposits (in Arabic).
Is zakat due on the returns of investment certificates?
If the returns are spent during the year on essential needs, no zakat is due on them. If they are added to the capital, zakat is calculated on the capital plus the returns, at 2.5%, when the lunar year passes on the capital.
This is the ruling in the fatwa Zakat on money earned from investment certificates (in Arabic). The type of certificate matters: on permissible certificates zakat is due on the capital and its profit, as in the fatwa Zakat on investment certificates (in Arabic). On interest-based certificates zakat is due on the capital only, and the interest should be given away to charitable causes, as in the fatwa Calculating Zakah on bank certificate with a compound interest rate.
Who receives zakat on money?
Zakat on money goes to the eight categories that Allah names in Surat At-Tawbah (verse 60), and they alone are its recipients.
Learn about them in Eight categories of Zakat. Now that you know the nisab of zakat on money, if you would like to pay your zakat through Qatar Charity, you can calculate and pay it directly with the zakat calculator.
