Zakat Rules in Pakistan, Checked Against the Fatwas

In short: Zakat is 2.5% of your zakatable wealth once it reaches the nisab: 52.5 tola of silver in the Hanafi view most people in Pakistan follow, or 7.5 tola of gold when gold is all you own.

A lot of zakat advice online uses the gold nisab for everything. That is not how most people in Pakistan are taught to work out zakat, and the difference can decide whether zakat is due at all. We checked every rule in our zakat calculator against published fatwas from Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia Banuri Town, Mufti Taqi Usmani and Darul Uloom Deoband. Three things were wrong. We fixed them, and this post shares what we found with the links, so you can read the fatwas yourself.

The rules at a glance

Nisab: fixed by weight, not by rupees

The nisab is 7.5 tola of gold or 52.5 tola of silver. With the tola used in Pakistan (11.664 grams) that is 87.48 g of gold and 612.36 g of silver. Some Arab fatwa bodies work from the mithqal (4.25 g) instead and use 85 g and 595 g. Neither is a rupee figure, so the nisab in rupees changes every day with the sarafa rate. Anyone quoting a fixed "nisab for 2026" in rupees is quoting one day's price.

Gold with cash: the silver nisab applies

This is the rule people get wrong most. In the Hanafi view, if you hold gold together with any other zakatable asset (cash, silver, business stock, savings), you do not test the gold nisab. You add up the value of everything and compare it with the value of 52.5 tola of silver. Banuri Town says this directly, and its answer about one tola of gold plus Rs 1,000 cash shows how little it takes: that one tola and the cash, together, are compared with the silver nisab.

Silver is far cheaper than gold, so the silver nisab is much lower. A family with five tola of jewellery and some money in the bank will almost always owe zakat under this rule, even though five tola is below the gold nisab. The gold nisab only applies when gold is the one and only zakatable thing you own.

Some scholars outside the Hanafi school allow the gold nisab for all wealth. The calculator offers that as a second option, labelled as another view, but it starts on the Hanafi rule.

22K jewellery counts at full weight

Jewellery is rarely pure gold. 22K is 91.7% gold and the rest is alloy. According to Banuri Town, when the alloy is less than the gold it follows the gold, so the whole weight counts. Stones and beads are the exception: take their weight out first.

This was the biggest fix in our calculator. It used to count only the pure gold inside the jewellery. So someone with exactly 7.5 tola of 22K jewellery and nothing else got told they owed nothing, because the pure gold came to 6.875 tola. By the fatwa, 7.5 tola of 22K meets the nisab and zakat is due. The calculator now tests the full weight.

For the amount, value the jewellery at what a sarafa would pay you for that karat today, not the 24K rate and not the price you bought it at. The calculator estimates this as karat divided by 24, times the 24K rate. If your jeweller quotes a different buying price, use theirs.

The zakat year: start and end, not every day

Zakat is due when you hold the nisab at the start of your zakat year and still hold it at the end, one Islamic year later. If your balance drops in the middle and recovers, the year is not broken. Money that came in during the year, such as a bonus or a sale, is added on your zakat date; it does not need a year of its own. Pick one date (many people use 1 Ramadan) and count what you own on that day.

Debts: only what is due this year

You subtract debts you have to pay now: bills, rent, money you owe people, and this year's instalments on a long-term loan. On a house loan Banuri Town allows only the instalments due in the current zakat year, not the whole balance. Older Hanafi texts subtract all debts, and some scholars still teach that, so ask one if you have a large loan.

Money you lent to someone

A loan you expect to get back is still your wealth. Its zakat is due each year, but you can wait and pay for all the past years once it is repaid. A debt you have little hope of recovering is left out; if it does come back later, zakat for the past years is due on it then.

Jewellery you wear every day

In the Hanafi school, gold and silver jewellery is zakatable even if it is worn every day. Darul Uloom Deoband calls skipping it against the Shariah. Most Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali scholars exempt jewellery in normal personal use, though IslamQA, which usually follows the Hanbali view, prefers the Hanafi position here. Diamonds and other stones are not zakatable unless you hold them for trade.

The bank deduction on 1 Ramadan

Banks in Pakistan deduct 2.5% on 1 Ramadan from savings and profit-and-loss accounts above the limit the government sets each year. Current accounts are not touched. To stop it you give your bank a sworn CZ-50 declaration at least 30 days before Ramadan.

Whether that deduction counts as your zakat is not settled. Banuri Town says it counts only when it comes out of your principal with your consent and reaches people who are eligible, and concludes that it is better to pay zakat yourself and not rely on the bank. If you do count it, subtract what the bank took from the total the calculator gives you.

Work out your zakat

Open the zakat calculator, enter today's gold and silver rate per tola, then your gold, cash and other assets. It tells you which nisab applies, whether zakat is due and how much. It runs in your browser, so none of your figures leave your device.

Sources

• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Nisab of gold and silver in tola
• Mufti Taqi Usmani: How to pay zakat
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Gold held with other assets uses the silver nisab
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: One tola of gold and Rs 1,000 cash
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Six tola of jewellery plus some cash
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Alloy in jewellery follows the gold
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Stones are taken out of the weight
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Which gold price to use
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Nisab at the start and end of the year
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Zakat on money you have lent
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Debts you may not get back
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Mortgage instalments and zakat
• Darul Uloom Deoband: Zakat on gold kept at home
• IslamQA: Zakat on jewellery that is worn
• Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Banuri Town: Zakat deducted by the bank

We are not muftis. This post reports what these fatwas say so you can follow them back to the source. For your own case, especially business partnerships, provident funds or large loans, ask a qualified scholar.