No zakat is due on sheep when their number falls short of forty. This rests on Abū Bakr’s report in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections: “If a man’s pasturing sheep are fewer than forty by a single animal, nothing is required—unless the owner wishes to give voluntarily.”

Once the flock reaches one hundred and twenty-one, two sheep become obligatory, in line with the same hadith of Abū Bakr: “When they exceed one hundred and twenty, two sheep are due.”

If the total reaches two hundred and one, three sheep are required, for Abū Bakr also said: “When they exceed two hundred, three sheep are due.”

Beyond that, the assessment stabilises at one sheep for every additional hundred. Thus, four hundred sheep entail four zakat animals, five hundred entail five, six hundred entail six, and so on.

In the Book of Ṣadaqāt that Abū Bakr applied until his death and ʿUmar applied after him, it is recorded:

“For sheep: one sheep is due on every forty up to one hundred and twenty. If they increase by one, two sheep are due up to two hundred. If they increase by one, three sheep are due up to three hundred. If they increase beyond that, nothing is due until they reach four hundred; once they do, one sheep is due for every additional hundred.”

This tradition is transmitted by the Five compilers except al-Nasāʾī.