the work but does so for a legitimate excuse, the earlier extraction is added to the later one; if not, the first is not joined to the second, even though the second is joined to the first—just as it is joined to wealth he owns from outside the mine—for the sole purpose of completing the nisab.

With rikaz (buried treasure) one-fifth is due, and—according to the dominant view—it is distributed to the same recipients as zakat. Its conditions, in the school, are attainment of the nisab and that it be in coined form; the passing of a year is not required. Rikaz is that which dates back to the pre-Islamic period. If what is found is of Islamic origin and its owner is known, it belongs to him; if the owner is unknown, it is treated as luqata (lost property). The same ruling applies when it is unclear from which of the two periods it comes.

Ownership passes to the finder, and he must pay the zakat, when he discovers it in unclaimed land or in land he has revived. If he finds it in a mosque or on a public road, it is luqata according to the school. If it is discovered in a person’s private property, it belongs to that person if he claims it; if he does not, it belongs to the one from whom he acquired the land, and so on, tracing back to the original reviver. Should a dispute arise between seller and buyer, landlord and tenant, or lender and borrower, the party in possession is believed upon taking an oath.

Section

The prerequisites for zakat on trade goods are the completion of a lunar year and the nisab, which is assessed at the end of the year. One opinion requires assessment at both ends of the year, another throughout the entire year. On the preponderant view, if during the year the capital reverts to cash below nisab and he then buys merchandise with it, the year is interrupted and a new year begins from the date of purchase. If the year ends while the merchandise is valued below nisab, the stronger view is that a new year starts and the first year is void, and the goods become property kept for personal use (quniyah) by intention.

Goods count as trade merchandise only when the intention to trade accompanies their acquisition through a reciprocal transaction such as purchase; the same, on the sounder view, applies to a mahr or the compensation paid in khulʿ, but not to items acquired by gift, gathering firewood, or repossession for defect. If he acquires the goods with cash amounting to a nisab, the year is reckoned from the time he obtained the cash; if the cash is less than a nisab, or he acquires them with non-trade goods, the year is counted from the purchase. A secondary view holds that if he acquires them with livestock that had already completed its zakat year, the new merchandise builds upon that year.

Profit is added to the principal for the purpose of counting the year as long as it has not been converted to cash; if it has been converted, then not, according to the preponderant opinion. The sounder view is that the offspring of trade livestock and the produce of trade property share the zakat year of the principal.

The obligation is one-quarter of one-tenth (2.5 %) of their market value. If he acquired the goods with cash, they are appraised in that currency when he possesses a nisab—and, on the sounder view, even when he possesses less; if he acquired them with non-trade goods, they are appraised according to the predominant currency in the locality. If two currencies prevail and the value reaches