What Is Zakat? The Third Pillar, Nisab and Who Pays

What Zakat means

Zakat (زكاة) comes from an Arabic root linked with purification, growth and blessing. In Islamic law it is the fixed share of qualifying wealth a Muslim must give to the people the Qur'an names as recipients. It is a duty owed to Allah and a right of those in need, which is why it is never left to mood or generosity.

Purification is the Qur'an's own word for it. Surah At-Tawbah 9:103 tells the Prophet to take charity from the wealth of the believers to purify and cleanse them. That does not make wealth dirty. The giver is cleansed of stinginess, and what remains is cleared of other people's rights.

Sadaqah is a different thing. It is voluntary, in any amount, at any time, to anyone. Zakat has a rate, a threshold and named recipients. You can give generously all year and still owe Zakat, because Sadaqah does not discharge it.

Why Zakat is the third pillar

The hadith of Ibn Umar lists the five foundations of Islam: the testimony of faith, prayer, Zakat, Hajj and fasting in Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 8). Zakat sits third.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) also spelled out what it is. When he sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, he told him to teach the people that Allah had made Zakat obligatory on their wealth, to be taken from their rich and given to their poor (Sahih al-Bukhari 1395). In the narration at 1458 he adds a warning for the collector: take Zakat, but not the best of people's property.

Three things follow. Zakat is a revealed obligation, not a custom a community can drop. And it moves wealth in one direction on purpose, from those who hold more than they need to those who hold less. The collector's warning shows the other side: the giver is not to be burdened, so the best of a person's property is not taken.

Who must pay Zakat

Zakat falls on the wealth you hold, not on what you earn and not on every Muslim regardless of means. You owe it when these things line up:

• You are a Muslim who owns the wealth outright and can use it. Money held for someone else, or that you cannot reach, needs a closer look.
• Your net Zakatable wealth is at or above the nisab. Most schools let you deduct debts that are due; the main Shafi'i view does not, so ask your scholar if your debts are large.
• It has stayed there for a full lunar year, called the hawl.
• The wealth is a kind Zakat applies to, as set out below.
• Age and sanity depend on your school. The Hanafi school requires Zakat on cash, gold, silver and trade goods only from adult, sane owners, though the crop tithe still applies to a child's land. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools hold it is also due on a child's wealth, paid by the guardian. Compare the four schools.

Zakat is not income tax. Tax follows legislation and goes to the state. Zakat is worship governed by Islamic law and goes to the recipients the Qur'an names, so paying SARS does not discharge it. A modest salary does not excuse you either: someone on a small income with large savings owes Zakat, while a high earner who spends everything may owe none. The question is what you hold on your Zakat date, the day you value your wealth each year, not what you earn.

The nisab: the minimum that makes Zakat due

The nisab is the threshold below which no Zakat is due. It is measured in gold or silver, the money of the Prophet's time. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said there is no Zakat on less than five awqiyah of silver (Sahih al-Bukhari 1447). An awqiyah is 40 dirhams, so five awqiyah is 200 dirhams. The gold benchmark of 20 dinars comes from other narrations and is the figure the schools use.

The last two columns are the same classical measure, 20 dinars (20 mithqal) of gold and 200 dirhams of silver, converted with different gram weights for the mithqal (4.374 g against 4.25 g; the dirham is seven tenths of it). The Zakat Calculator uses 87.48 g and 612.36 g throughout. If your scholar or Zakat body quotes the other pair, the result is close but not identical, so pick one pair and use it consistently.

Gold is priced far higher per gram than silver, so the two standards give very different rand thresholds. The silver nisab is far lower and brings more people into Zakat, which is why many Zakat bodies recommend it for cash. Some scholars hold to gold. Ask which your scholar follows before you calculate.

The nisab is a gate, not an allowance. Once you are through it, 2.5% applies to your whole net wealth, not only the part above the line.

Which wealth Zakat applies to

Zakat applies to wealth that holds value and can grow, not to the things you need to live. This table covers the usual cases in a personal calculation.

Crops and livestock follow their own thresholds and rates. The Prophet (peace be upon him) set one tenth for land watered by rain or natural channels and one twentieth for land irrigated with effort (Sahih al-Bukhari 1483). The calculator does not cover crops or livestock, so take those to a scholar.

How much Zakat you pay

On cash, savings, gold, silver and trade goods the rate is 2.5%, which is one fortieth. In a line: net Zakatable wealth × 0.025 = Zakat due.

Here is a worked example for someone who follows the silver standard and values their wealth on their Zakat date:

Check: R90,000 ÷ 40 = R2,250, the same as R90,000 × 0.025. Someone on the gold standard would first compare R90,000 with the much higher gold nisab and might owe nothing. That is why choosing the standard comes before the arithmetic.

Keep crops on their own line at their own rate, and everything else together at 2.5%. Folding crops into the 2.5% total is a common slip.

When Zakat is due

For cash, gold, silver and trade goods, Zakat is due once your wealth has stayed at or above the nisab for one lunar year (the Hanafi school checks only the start and the end of that year; if the wealth is wiped out entirely in between, the year starts again). A lunar year is about 354 days, so your Zakat date moves roughly eleven days earlier on the Gregorian calendar each year. Choose one Islamic-calendar date, value everything Zakat applies to on it and pay. Many Muslims use Ramadan. That is a habit, not a requirement.

The schools differ on how to treat a balance that dips below the nisab mid-year and money that arrives at different times. A practical approach is to assess everything you hold on your Zakat date, provided you held the nisab when the year began. If your balance swings widely, ask your scholar. You may pay before your Zakat date if you wish, but you still reconcile the figure on that date.

Crops are the exception: there is no waiting year, and the due is paid at harvest, as the Qur'an says to give its due on the day of harvest (Surah Al-An'am 6:141). Ask your scholar when the due falls for your harvest.

Who can receive Zakat

The Qur'an closes the list of recipients itself, in a single verse:

The verse names who may receive Zakat. It does not require equal shares. The Shafi'i school expects Zakat to reach every category that is present and available, while the Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools allow it all to go to one category. Most scholars also require the recipient to be Muslim.

A worthy cause is not automatically a Zakat recipient. Where scholars differ, building projects being the usual example, ask the organisation which view it follows and how it keeps Zakat funds separate from other donations.

Can you give Zakat to family?

A relative who qualifies can receive your Zakat, and helping them keeps family ties as well. The limits are about duty and descent:

• Your parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren cannot receive your Zakat. You are already bound to maintain them, and Zakat cannot be used to replace that duty.
• A husband cannot give his Zakat to his wife, because he is bound to maintain her. Whether a wife may give her Zakat to her husband is a point on which scholars differ.
• Siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins can receive it when they qualify and you are not obliged to maintain them.
• The family of the Prophet (peace be upon him) are not eligible, as he said that Zakat does not become the family of Muhammad (Sahih Muslim 1072a).

Before paying a relative, ask two questions: do they qualify under the eight categories, and would your payment replace something you already owe them?

How to pay your Zakat

1. Fix your Zakat date.
2. List what you hold on that date, category by category.
3. Choose your nisab standard and confirm you are above it.
4. Deduct the debts that are due and apply the rate for each category.
5. Make the intention (niyyah) for Zakat when you give, and pay to eligible recipients directly or through an organisation that separates Zakat funds.
6. Keep a record of the figure and what you paid.

Zakat al-Fitr is a separate obligation at the end of Ramadan, with its own rules and amount. Paying one does not fulfil the other.

Unpaid Zakat: in life and at death

The Qur'an warns those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah (Surah At-Tawbah 9:34). In Sahih Muslim 987a the Prophet (peace be upon him) describes the owner of gold or silver who does not pay what is due on it. The warning is aimed at withholding the right, not at owning wealth. Islam permits lawful earning and saving.

If you missed years, the Zakat is still owed. Value what you held in each missed year, pay the arrears and ask a scholar to help where records are missing. Time does not cancel it.

At death the question changes. The Qur'an makes the fixed shares payable only after any bequest or debt (Surah An-Nisa 4:11 to 12), and scholars agree debts are settled before bequests, so the schools ask whether unpaid Zakat counts as a debt:

• The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools treat it as a debt to Allah, settled from the estate before any wasiyyah or Faraid share, even if no will was left. They reason by analogy from the Prophet's words, about a Hajj vow a mother left unfulfilled, that what is owed to Allah has more right to be paid (Sahih al-Bukhari 1852).
• The Hanafi school holds that it lapses with death as an earthly claim unless the deceased directed it by wasiyyah, in which case it is paid from the one-third. Adult heirs may still pay it voluntarily from their own shares.
• The Maliki school takes Zakat that is established to have been left unpaid from the whole of the deceased's wealth, not only the one-third. An admission made merely in the final illness, with witnesses that it still stood against him, is paid from the one-third and only if he directed its payment; without that direction it is not paid at all. Zakat of the year of death is paid from the whole wealth if he acknowledged that it had fallen due and directed its payment.

Here is what that means in rand for an estate of R1,200,000 after funeral costs and other debts, with R12,000 of Zakat unpaid:

Under the first row the most that can go to a wasiyyah is one third of R1,188,000, which is R396,000. The distribution order is the same one set out in What Is Paid Before Inheritance in Islam?, where unpaid Zakat appears among the debts to Allah.

The safe course is simple. Pay your Zakat in life, and record any arrears in your wasiyyah so your family is not left to guess. A wasiyyah that names the arrears works under every school. You can work out the figure with the Zakat Calculator, and the Islamic Will Generator will put it in writing.

Giving with dignity

How you give matters. Surah Al-Baqarah 2:263 to 264 says a kind word and forgiveness are better than charity followed by hurt, and that reminders of favour and injury cancel the reward. A recipient should not be shamed, pressed for thanks or made to feel lower. You are returning a right to the person it belongs to, in obedience to Allah.

Five common mistakes

• Treating regular Sadaqah as a replacement for Zakat.
• Taking 2.5% of annual salary instead of 2.5% of the wealth held on the Zakat date.
• Counting the family home and the car as Zakatable, or leaving out gold, shares and money owed to you.
• Paying Zakat to a cause outside the eight categories.
• Waiting past the Zakat date because the amount is inconvenient.

Sources

Qur'an: Surah Al-Baqarah 2:43 and 2:263 to 264; Surah Al-An'am 6:141; Surah At-Tawbah 9:34, 9:60 and 9:103; Surah An-Nisa 4:11 to 12. Hadith: Sahih al-Bukhari 8, 1395, 1447, 1458, 1483 and 1852; Sahih Muslim 987a and 1072a (numbering as on sunnah.com). The nisab in mithqal and dirhams and the school positions on unpaid Zakat at death follow al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya (Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Kuwait), vol. 23, entry Zakat, paragraphs 69, 70 and 126. The detailed rules of Zakat belong to fiqh, where schools differ, and this article says so wherever they do. It is general educational information. For your own calculation or a complex asset, consult a qualified scholar who follows your school, and for an estate or legal question, an attorney.

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