Obedient Angel
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Join date : 2011-04-30
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 | Subject: Questions about Zakah  Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:56 am | |
| QuestionI am a student who wishes to know when Zakat is due? If I make about $200-$300 dollars every two weeks do I have to pay Zakat? Where do I give Zakat to? Does it have to be to a muslim and please give me examples of places in non-Muslim countries where I can give Zakat (ex. Mosques).
Answer
Praise be to Allaah.
1. The time when zakaah is due is when you have kept the money for a whole year. Then zakaah becomes due, and the rate is 2.5%. This amount that you get every two weeks is not subject to zakaah unless you have kept it for a whole year, or it is income from a business for which the time has come to pay zakaah.
2. Pay your zakaah in the country in which you live, if there are poor people there. If there is another country where there are poor people who are in greater need than people in your country, then it is OK to give your zakaah to them.
3. Yes, the one who receives the zakaah has to be Muslim, except in the case where there is a non-Muslim whom we want to encourage to become Muslim.
Shaykh Sa’d al-Humayd.
The lowest amount at which zakaah becomes due varies according to the type of wealth, whether it is gold or silver. You are undoubtedly asking about an amount of currency such as dollars. It appears that the amount mentioned in the question will be subject to zakaah if it is kept for a whole year, because it is more than the nisaab.
Source: Islam Q&A Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid
How much is the nisaab for zakaah with regard to paper money? Is it possible to calculate the nisaab for money on the basis of the nisaab for gold or silver?
Praise be to Allaah.
The value of the nisaab [the amount that determines whether zakaah is obligatory; anyone who has more than this is obliged to pay zakaah] for dollars or other currencies is whatever is equivalent to the value of 20 mithqaals [a unit of measurement] of gold or 140 mithqaals of silver at the time when the zakaah is owed.
It should be based on whichever of the two works out better for the poorbecause the prices of gold and silver vary from time to time and from country to country (Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 9/257) and because this will be more beneficial to the poor. (Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 9/254)
Given that currently the price of silver is lower than the price of gold, the nisaab should be based on the price of silver, so if a person’s wealth (in paper money) reaches the nisaab on that basis, he has to pay zakaah. The nisaab for silver is roughly equivalent to 595 grams of silver, so the one who has wealth has to pay 2.5% or 25 out of every 1,000 that he has in currency, after one year has passed). And Allaah knows best.
Source: Islam Q&A Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid | |
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