Thus, if a person owns camels that graze for five months and are fed fodder for seven months, no zakah is due on them. If they graze for six months and are fed fodder for six months, no zakah is due on them. If they graze throughout the entire year, zakah is due on them; and if they graze for seven months and are fed fodder for five, zakah is due on them.

The evidence that free grazing is a condition is the hadith of Anas ibn Malik in the document on zakah which Abu Bakr wrote: “Concerning freely grazing sheep or goats: for every forty, one sheep.” (1) He said, “Concerning sheep or goats,” then said, “their freely grazing ones.” This is an explicative apposition, which, like an adjective, restricts the noun it qualifies. It is as though he had said: “Concerning freely grazing sheep or goats: for every forty, one sheep or goat.”

In the hadith of Bahz ibn Hakim, from his father, from his grandfather, the Prophet ﷺ said: “For every freely grazing camel …” (2) Although this hadith is disputed, it indicates that free grazing is a condition in the case of camels. Camels and cattle are likewise analogically compared to sheep or goats.

It is also stipulated that they be kept for milk production and breeding, thereby excluding those kept for trade.