of descriptions, meaning that each partner owns specific animals, yet his stock is distinguished from the other’s only by one or more identifying traits.

27 – For commingling by description to have legal effect, the two herds must share:
• a marāḥ (the same night-fold),
• a masraḥ (the same place from which they set out to pasture),
• the very pasture itself at the same time and in the same place,
• a mashrab (the same watering point),
• a maḥlab (the same milking location),
• and the same breeding male, with no exclusive right of either owner to that male, provided the species is the same—such as sheep or goats. A difference of species removes this requirement.
Intention plays no role in either form of commingling, whether by joint ownership of the animals themselves or by shared descriptions.

28 – It is unlawful to combine two separate assets, or to separate two combined assets, when the purpose is to evade zakah, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not combine what is separate, nor separate what is combined, for fear of the charity.”

29 – Commingling renders the property of two or more owners as though it were a single estate once the minimum threshold is reached and the partners are themselves liable for zakah, whether the commingling is of actual ownership or of descriptions. Whatever zakah becomes due is apportioned according to each owner’s share. Thus, if one person owns a single sheep and another owns thirty-nine, together they owe one sheep, which they divide between them equally.

30 – As for riqqah, that is, pure silver: its niṣāb is two hundred dirhams, and one-quarter of a tithe (2.5 percent) is due on it when a full lunar year has elapsed.

31 – As for a dhimmī, zakah is not taken from him, for zakah is not valid from him before he embraces Islam. Instead, jizyah is taken: from adult males one dinar, or its equivalent in kind, such as garments.

32 – His statement, “It will be accepted from him, and the collector shall add two sheep,” and his statement, “It will be accepted from him a jadhʿah, and the collector shall give him twenty dirhams or two sheep,” both serve as evidence that, when the prescribed age-class of livestock is unavailable, it is permissible to move down or up to the next age-class, and that