Zakat in the Five Fiqh Schools, Rule by Rule

In short: the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali and Jafari schools agree on the rate, 2.5%, but they differ on worn jewellery, on debts, on whether gold and silver are added together and on whether cash carries zakat at all. Our zakat calculator follows the Hanafi school unless you pick another. This guide gives the ruling of each school with the words of its own book or fatwa, so you can check it.

The differences at a glance

The Hanafi rows come from the Pakistani seminaries we cite in our guide to zakat rules in Pakistan, for example Zakat on gold kept at home on jewellery.

Jewellery you wear

Three schools exempt jewellery in normal personal use: the Maliki, the Shafi'i by their relied-upon view, and the Hanbali by the apparent position of the school. The Hanafi school counts it. Ayatollah Sistani says the same as the first three, and adds that coins worn as ornaments still carry zakat by obligatory precaution while they circulate as money. In the calculator, only the worn jewellery fields are left out; gold you keep as bars or savings still counts.

• ( لا المباح في الأظهر ) ؛ لأنه معد لاستعمال مباح
  Islamweb library, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj: Shafi'i: no zakat on permitted jewellery
• ( و ) لا في ( حلي ) جائز اتخاذه ولو لرجل ( وإن تكسر إن لم يتهشم )
  Islamweb library, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi: Maliki: no zakat on permitted jewellery
• فصل ولا زكاة في حلي مباح معد لاستعمال أو إعارة وإن لم يستعمله أو يعره
  Islamweb library, Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat: Hanbali: no zakat on permitted jewellery
• ولا تجب الزكاة في سبائك الذهب والفضّة والحُلِيّ المتّخذة منهما وغير ذلك ممّا لا يكون من المسكوكات النقديّة.
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Minhaj al-Salihin: bullion and jewellery

Debts

The Shafi'i school does not let a debt stop zakat. The Hanbali school takes debts off, for cash and trade goods as much as for crops and animals. The Maliki school removes zakat on gold, silver and cash because of a debt, but only the part that the other goods you own cannot pay for, so enter 0 for debts if you own such goods. For the Jafari school we found no ruling on whether a trader's debts reduce zakat, so the calculator does not subtract them and tells you to ask your marja's office. A debt owed to you carries no zakat in the Jafari view, even when you could collect it.

• ( ولا يمنع الدين ) الذي في ذمة من بيده نصاب فأكثر مؤجلا أو حالا لله تعالى أو لآدمي ( وجوبها ) عليه ( في أظهر الأقوال )
  Islamweb library, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj: Shafi'i: a debt does not stop zakat
• ( بخلاف ) زكاة ( العين ) فإن الدين والفقد والأسر يسقطها
  Islamweb library, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi: Maliki: a debt removes zakat on gold, silver and cash
• ( ولا ) زكاة ( في مال من عليه دين ) حال أو مؤجل ( بنقص النصاب ) باطنا كان المال ، كأثمان وعروض تجارة ، أو ظاهرا ، كماشية وحبوب وثمار
  Islamweb library, Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat: Hanbali: a debt lowers the nisab
• ولا في الدين وإن تمكّن من استيفائه
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Minhaj al-Salihin: money owed to you

Gold and silver together

The Shafi'i school never completes one metal's nisab with the other, so 7.5 tola of gold and 52.5 tola of silver are each tested alone. The Maliki and Hanbali schools add them by proportion, not by price: half the gold nisab and half the silver nisab make one nisab. The Hanbali school also adds trade goods to each metal. The Hanafi school adds the values of everything and tests the total, which is what the calculator did before.

• ولا يكمل أحد النقدين بالآخر ويكمل كل نوع من جنس بآخر منه
  Islamweb library, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj: Shafi'i: gold and silver are not added together
• ( بالجزء ) أي التجزئة والمقابلة لا بالجودة و الرداءة والقيمة
  Islamweb library, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi: Maliki: gold and silver are added by proportion
• ( ويضم أحد النقدين إلى الآخر بالإجزاء في تكميل النصاب )
  Islamweb library, Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat: Hanbali: gold and silver are added by proportion
• فإن عروض التجارة تضم إلى كل واحد من الذهب والفضة ، ويكمل به نصابه . لا نعلم فيه اختلافا
  Islamweb library, al-Mughni: Hanbali: trade goods are added to gold and to silver

The nisab for paper money

No classical text in the three Sunni schools names a nisab for paper money. Modern councils decided it. The Makkah Fiqh Council takes the lower of the gold and silver nisabs, which is silver, and the Saudi Permanent Committee takes whichever is better for the poor. Dar al-Ifta Egypt uses 85 g of gold. For these schools the calculator therefore lets you choose the silver or the gold nisab and says whose view each one is.

• وجوب زكاة الأوراق النقدية، إذا بلغت قيمها أدنى النصابين من ذهب أو فضة، أو كانت تكمل النصاب مع غيرها من الأثمان والعروض المعدة للتجارة
  Islamweb library, Makkah Fiqh Council, quoted by Islamweb: Paper money: the lower of the two nisabs
• مقدار نصاب الزكاة في الدولار، وغيره من العملات الورقية، هو ما يعادل قيمته عشرين مثقالًا من الذهب، أو مائة وأربعين مثقالًا من الفضة، ويكون ذلك بالأحظ للفقراء من أحد النصابين
  Islamweb library, Saudi Permanent Committee, quoted by Islamweb: Paper money: the nisab better for the poor
• ونصاب الذهب 85 جرامًا، ونصاب الفضة 595 جرامًا، وهذا ما يقابل قدر النصاب الوارد في السنة وهو عشرون مثقالًا من الذهب ومائتَا درهم من الفضة
  Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya: Zakat on gold bought to wear

The Jafari school

Under Ayatollah Sistani zakat is due on ten things. Gold and silver count only as minted coins that are still used as money, so paper money, bank balances, jewellery, bullion and money owed to you carry no zakat. Khums, one fifth of what is left of a year's income after living costs, applies to savings instead; the calculator does not work it out. Business goods carry zakat by obligatory precaution, at 2.5%, once they are worth 15 sayrafi mithqal of coined gold (69.12 g) or 105 mithqal of coined silver. The page we read does not say which of the two applies when they differ, and gives no gram figure for silver, so the calculator uses the lower of the two and works the silver weight out from the gold one. The nisab must be held for 11 months.

• Zakat is obligatory (wājib) on ten things: 1. wheat; 2. barley; 3. dates; 4. raisins; 5. gold; 6. silver; 7. camels; 8. cows; 9. sheep [and goats]; 10. business goods, based on obligatory precaution (al‑iḥtiyāṭ al‑wājib).
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Zakat is due on ten things
• notes and coins that are not made of gold or silver, such as nickel coins, do not come under the rules of gold and silver and it is not obligatory to give zakat on them.
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Zakat on gold and silver coins only
• Money deposited in bank does not have obligatory Zakat. Rather, Khums is payable on it, if it is not spent for expenses in a complete year.
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Zakat and khums on bank deposits
• The goods must have a value of at least fifteen mithqāls of coined gold or 105 mithqāls of coined silver.
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Zakat on business goods
• One legal mithqāl is equivalent to 3.456 grams; therefore, twenty legal mithqāls is equal to 69.12 grams.
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: The nisab for gold
• If someone owns cows, sheep, camels, gold, or silver for eleven months, then even though zakat becomes obligatory for him at the beginning of the twelfth month
  Office of Ayatollah Sistani: Conditions for zakat to become obligatory

We are not muftis. This guide reports what these sources say so you can follow them back. For your own case, ask a qualified scholar of your school.