Zakat Question

[armughal]

Re: Zakat Question

@Faisal

In the example you gave, you don’t pay zakat on month 0 unless you have had that $1,000 with you for an entire year prior to that.
For year 1 (assuming your year is Ramzan 1 to Ramzan 1), your unused balance is $1,000. You pay zakat on that balance.
For year 2, your unused balance is $2,000. You pay zakat on that balance.

I don’t see any additional $500 in the example. You close your year at Ramzan 1st and compute zakat. Not take intervening periods (e.g. Months 3 to 17 etc) and come out with new balances all the time.

Secondly, what I do is compute the zakat on Ramzan 1st, and put the amount in a separate account. I don’t have to give all of it away on day one. I try to give it away as quickly as possible, but still look for best sources of utilization. Technically you can keep giving out the zakat money throughout the year to deserved people and causes. However, that doesn’t change the fact, that the annual computation of zakat due is made on Ramzan 1st.

in the example tht i gave, from month 3 to month 17 (assume them Islamic months) there has been 6000$ in the account, out of which zakat has been paid on only 1000$ (in month 0) and the rest 5000$ had completed one year unused with the person in the month 15 which was never accounted for…
instead when he spends 4000$ in month 17, when the money had been with him for well over a year, he is left with 2000 off which he pays zakat in month 24…

THAT IS WRONG…

now had he followed the method of paying off zakat on all the balance he had in his account every year, he wud have paid off the zakat on 6000$ in month 12, instead of only on 1000$…
then when he went to month 24 with only 2000$, he need not worry about the 5000$ that spent 14 months in his account untouched, cuz he has already paid off the zakat in advance…