Zakat

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is a compulsory donation to charity by all Muslims who reach the minimum threshold for payment.

Zakat is 2.5% of your total wealth. Therefore if you have £10,000 of wealth liable to Zakat, you would pay £250.

There are seven categories of people who are eligible to receive Zakat:

1. The poor and needy
2. Administrators of Zakat
3. Those whose hearts have been recently reconciled
4. Those who have been enslaved
5. Those in debt
6. In the cause of God
7. Travellers (including refugees)

No, zakat is only prescribed for Muslims.

You must pay zakat with the intention of paying it. It is important that you make an intention to give a donation as a zakat payment.

Zakat is to be paid on the total savings regardless of what was paid on it in the past. Therefore, you would pay 2.5% of £10,000, £250.

For every year that you owe Zakat, take 2.5% from the total wealth you had at the end of that year and pay that in Zakat. If you are not sure how much wealth you had, you must estimate it to the best of your ability. E.g. It is now Ramadan 2020. You have not paid Zakat for the last 5 years. You need to work out how much wealth you owned every Ramadan for the last 5 years and pay 2.5% of that.

The majority of the scholars from the past favoured the opinion that it should be paid. This is the same for both the child and the insane person. Therefore, their guardian should take the Zakat from the person’s wealth and pay it on their behalf. However, some opinion suggest that it is not due on children and insane people, so please discuss with a scholar.

The best way for you to do this would be to take the jewellery to a jeweller and ask them to value just the gold and silver parts of the jewellery. The valuations they give will be the total on which you have to pay Zakat. Precious stones are not liable for Zakat.

Yes, it must be included.

Yes, as it is as if s/he is just storing your money.

If the money is paid back, then it is liable for Zakat (provided the lender meet other criteria for paying Zakat). However, if the money is not paid back, then the intention for lending would need to be reviewed. If the lender was fairly sure that s/he was not going to receive it back and s/he is unable to refer it to a judiciary, then in such cases Zakat is usually not payable. However, there are many variables and hence this question should be referred to a scholar.

The general answer would be yes, however we would strongly urge you to consult a scholar about this.

For the time that you were renting the house out and did not have the intention of selling, you do not pay Zakat on the house. But you would still have to pay Zakat on the rent you earned just like any other wealth you have. You must pay Zakat after one lunar year from the day you made the intention to sell the house. You must also pay zakat on the selling price of the house. However, if you are paying in advance, you would need to estimate this. You would need to do the same for every year after that in which the house is still for sale. But to be absolutely clear, please discuss this with a scholar.

Every year at the time of paying Zakat, you would need to calculate the total selling price for all the goods for sale in your shop. E.g. All the clothes for sale in your shop add up to a total selling value of a particular sum of money. You would add this to your other wealth when calculating your total payment.

The length of time that an individual must possess the wealth that they will pay zakat on.

Yes s/he can pay Zakat, but they would need to factor in any expenditures or liabilities when calculating how much they would need to pay.

Yes, but please discuss with a Scholar.

Yes, you need to include it in your calculation.

This depends on the nature of the fund. We would suggest you consult a scholar about this as the issue of pension schemes can be quite complex.

It sounds as if the mentioned fund would count as a Waqf. The general rule is that a Waqf is not liable for Zakat. As long as, there is no personal ownership, or nobody is personally benefitting from this fund, and also depending on the nature of the fund, Zakat may/may not be liable. However, you would need to check this with a scholar.

The Fuqara & the Masakin. Fuqara are those that do not own wealth to the amount of Nisab. Masakin are those who do not have food for the day (15 -20% of the world).

We have delivery offices in the countries in which we work and they carry out assessments – using selection criteria – because we want to ensure that we are reaching the most vulnerable people.

It can only be given to people from one of those seven categories. Most scholars agree that you can give zakat to a family member if they’re from one of the categories. E.g. they are poor and unable to provide for themselves, and is not already dependent on you. But if he/she is one of your dependents, you are obliged to spend on them anyway and cannot give them anything from your Zakat.

If the orphan is eligible to receive zakat (E.g. they or their family own less than the nisab or do not have food for the day) then they will be eligible to receive it. Orphans would come under category 1 and 2 recipients of Zakat.

We spend Zakat funds on projects where we can guarantee that the recipients are poor and needy and directly receive the assistance. So, for example, we can provide food packs to destitute people so they can feed themselves and their families. But we would not use the funds on a well that would benefit the whole community. This is because we could not guarantee that only poor and needy people will get water from that well. However, we will use other funds such as Sadaqah to pay for projects that benefit whole communities.

Islamic Relief spends Zakat funds on the poor and needy.

We currently give Zakat funds to Muslims only. But this is under review.

We assist people with Zakat funds in the UK and overseas, as long as they qualify for it.

We have Zakat guidelines, which we can share with you.

We consulted a panel of experts to come up with our Zakat policy and guidelines.