A questioner asked: “I must pay zakat for three years on an amount of 5332 dollars. How much zakat is due on me for these three years? May Allah reward you with goodness.”
The amount due after the passing of these three years depends on the scholarly difference concerning whether zakat is obligatory in the wealth itself or as a debt in one’s liability.
If we say zakat is due in the liability (fi al dhimma), then you must pay one quarter of one tenth of the amount you possess (5332 dollars), which is five hundred and thirty three dollars for each year, so the total becomes 400 dollars.
If we say zakat is due in the wealth itself (fi ayn al mal), then what is due for the first year is one quarter of one tenth of the amount, which is 133 dollars. This amount is then deducted from the zakatable amount for the second year, so the amount subject to zakat becomes 5200 dollars, and the zakat for that year becomes 130 dollars. This is then deducted from the amount subject to zakat for the third year, so the zakatable amount becomes 5069.32 dollars, and the zakat due is 126.70 dollars. Thus, the total zakat for the three years according to this opinion is 389.83 dollars.
The matter is simple, and the difference is slight. The first opinion is safer and more prudent for one’s liability, even though the second opinion — that zakat is due in the wealth itself while also connected to the liability — is the stronger one, based on Allah’s statement: “Take from their wealth a charity” (Al Tawbah 103).
The author of Zad al Mustaqni’ said: “Zakat is obligatory in the wealth itself, and it has a connection to the liability.” End quote.
Some scholars said: It is obligatory in the liability and has no connection to the wealth at all. The proof is that if the wealth is destroyed after zakat becomes due, a person must still pay it. Other scholars said zakat is obligatory in the wealth itself, based on Allah’s statement: “Take from their wealth a charity that purifies them and increases them…” and based on the Prophet’s statement to Mu’adh when he sent him to Yemen: “Inform them that Allah has made obligatory upon them a charity in their wealth.” This shows zakat is due in the wealth itself.
Each opinion, however, faces a difficulty. If we say it is due in the wealth itself, then its attachment to the wealth becomes like the attachment of a pledge to a pledged item, meaning the owner cannot dispose of the wealth once zakat becomes due. But this contradicts reality, since a person upon whom zakat is due may still dispose of his wealth after zakat becomes obligatory, though he remains responsible for paying the zakat.
If we say it is due in the liability, then zakat remains obligatory even if the wealth is destroyed after becoming due without negligence, and this too raises an issue. The opinion adopted by the author is a combination of the two: zakat is due in the wealth itself and also connected to the liability. Thus, a person is held accountable for it in his liability, yet it is imposed on the wealth such that zakat would not be due without the presence of the wealth. So it is obligatory in the wealth itself. End quote.
We also remind you of the obligation of sincere repentance from what you have done, for delaying zakat after it becomes due is not permissible.
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