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Paying Zakah on Savings: A Must?

14 December, 2017
Q I have been working for the last 32 years. Although Islam urges Muslims to pay Zakah on their savings/excess on expenditure, I have been paying 2.5% or more on my total earnings every year, and still continue to do so. Kindly enlighten me; do I have to still pay Zakah on my belongings (house, household items, vehicle, gold, etc.) which have been assigned to my wife and children although I’m still paying on my earnings year by year?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

All the materials and stuff that are personally used are not subject to Zakah.


In his response to your question, Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, states:

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What you are paying I suppose you intend by it to cover Zakah plus, anything above the required Zakah is a charity which is highly rewarded.

The house you live in, the car for personal and family transportation, the household furniture, the appliances and the like are all exempted from Zakah and you need not count them when you estimate the due amount of Zakah.

Gold is subject to Zakah if, when added to other Zakatable assets such as savings, bank accounts, investment in share and the like, it reaches the amount of nisab which is approximately about US$ 1500.

Each person, including minors, calculates his Zakah separately and you pay the Zakah due on children and wife yourself from your own income.

Allah Almighty knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.

About Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf
Dr. Monzer Kahf is a professor and consultant/trainer on Islamic banking, finance, Zakah, Awqaf, Islamic Inheritance, Islamic estate planning, Islamic family law, and other aspects of Islamic economics, finance, Islamic transactions (Mu'amalat). Dr. Monzer Kahf is currently Professor of Islamic Finance & Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey