Others hold that, with regard to this case, both opinions are transmitted.

Zakat becomes due immediately on property that is out of the owner’s sight so long as he is able to recover it; if he cannot, it is treated like usurped wealth.

As for a debt: even if it consists of livestock, or is not yet binding—such as the outstanding price in a mukātaba contract—no zakat is payable on it; the same ruling, according to the Qadīm view, applies when the debt is in the form of merchandise or cash.

In the Jadīd view, however, if the debt is already due but cannot be collected because of the debtor’s insolvency or the like, it is treated as usurped; if collection is possible, zakat must be paid forthwith. Should the debt be deferred, the authoritative position is that it is treated like usurped property, although another opinion requires its zakat to be paid before it is actually received.

In the strongest opinion, a debt owed by the owner does not block the obligation of zakat. A third view is that it does so, but only with respect to hidden assets—namely gold, silver, and trade goods. Thus, on the first opinion, if a person is placed under interdiction for debt and a full year passes while his property is under restraint, the wealth is deemed like usurped.

If both zakat and debts to human creditors exist in an estate, zakat is given priority; another opinion gives priority to the debt, and a third treats them as equal.

Before division, booty from war is zakatable if the combatants choose to take ownership, a full year elapses thereafter, the total booty is of a type subject to zakat, and each soldier’s share reaches a complete nisab—or the combined amount does so in a case where partnership (khalṭa) is recognized. Otherwise, no zakat is due.

If a husband assigns his wife a specified nisab of freely-grazing livestock as her dower, she becomes liable for its zakat once a full year has passed from the date of assignment.

Someone who lets a house for four years in return for eighty dinars and then receives the rent is, according to the preponderant view, required to pay zakat only on the portion that has actually accrued. At the end of the first year he pays the zakat of twenty; at the end of the second, zakat on twenty for one year and on another twenty for two years; at the end of the third, zakat on forty for one year and on twenty for three years; and at the end of the fourth, zakat on sixty for one year and on twenty for four years. A second opinion obliges him, at the close of the first year, to pay the zakat of the entire eighty.

Section

Zakat must be discharged without delay once the owner is able, meaning that both the wealth and the eligible recipients are present. He may pay the zakat of hidden assets himself, and—according to the Jadīd view—the same applies to manifest assets. He may also appoint an agent or hand the amount to the imam, and the sounder view is that giving it to the imam is preferable unless the imam is unjust.

Intention is obligatory: he must intend, for example, “this is the obligatory zakat on my wealth” or “this is the obligatory alms due from my property.” It is insufficient to intend merely “this is an obligation,” and the same rule holds for voluntary charity according to the soundest view. He need not specify from which part of his assets he is paying; but if he does specify, the payment will not count for any other part. When a guardian pays the zakat of a minor or an insane person, he must form the requisite intention himself.