Chapter

One sheep is due on forty sheep; two sheep on one hundred and twenty-one; three sheep on two hundred and one; then one sheep for every additional hundred. Jointly held livestock is treated as a single holding.

His statement, “One sheep is due on forty sheep”: “One sheep” is the subject of the verb “is due.” Thus, forty sheep require one sheep. If he gives it, and a full lunar year passes over the remainder without any increase—leaving only thirty-nine sheep—then nothing is due on them, because they have fallen below the nisab. The minimum nisab for sheep is forty, and what is due on them is one sheep.

His statement, “Two sheep are due on one hundred and twenty-one”: the exempt interval is eighty.

Thus, forty sheep require one sheep, and one hundred and twenty sheep require one sheep. Eighty sheep incur no payment—glory be to Allah! This is part of the ease of the Sacred Law; so all praise is due to Allah.

His statement, “Three sheep are due on two hundred and one”: the exempt interval is eighty. Thus, the exempt interval in the second bracket is like that in the first bracket.

His statement, “Then one sheep for every hundred”: that is, once the number exceeds two hundred and one, one sheep is due for every hundred, and the prescribed rate remains fixed accordingly.

Thus, three hundred require three sheep, and three hundred and ninety-nine require three sheep, because the fourth hundred has not been completed. If the next prescribed bracket has not been reached, the number is assigned to the preceding bracket. The exempt interval from two hundred and one to three hundred and ninety-nine is one hundred and ninety-eight.