Chapter: Zakāt on Crops

Zakāt applies only to staple foodstuffs. Among fruits this means fresh dates and grapes; among grains it includes wheat, barley, rice, lentils, and every other commodity that people ordinarily rely on for subsistence, according to the preferred opinion. In Imām al-Shāfiʿī’s earlier view, it is likewise due on olives, saffron, dyer’s woad, safflower, and honey.

The nisab (minimum taxable amount) is five wasqs, which equals 1,600 Baghdadi ratls, or—by the Damascene measure—346 ratls and two more.

I say: the sounder calculation is 342 and six-sevenths ratls, because the sounder view is that the Baghdadi ratl weighs 128 and four-sevenths dirhams. Another opinion omits the sevenths, while yet another puts it at 130. Allah knows best.