and He says: “O you who believe, spend of the good things you have earned” (Quran 2:267).
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Zakat on fruit becomes due once its soundness is apparent and its ripeness is manifest, and it becomes due on grain when the kernels harden while still in their ears. The obligation, however, is not firmly established until the produce is placed on the bayadir (threshing floors) prepared for sun-drying; these bayadir are also called the jurn. Consequently, if the owner cuts, reaps, sells, or the crop is lost without negligence on his part before it is laid on the threshing floor, the zakat liability lapses—so long as the cutting or sale was not intended as an escape from zakat—because his ownership ceases before the duty is fixed. If any of that occurs after it has been placed on the threshing floor, the zakat does not fall away, for the obligation has become established. Thus, although zakat is owed on the wealth itself, it also remains a debt upon the owner’s liability (dhimma).
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Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya said: “With grapes that will not turn into raisins, it is unquestionably permissible and sufficient to pay raisins equal to one-tenth of what they would have been had they become raisins. As for grapes that normally become raisins yet are harvested before that stage, he must without doubt pay in raisins. If he instead gives one-tenth in grapes, the Hanbali school has two opinions:
a. It does not discharge the obligation; this is the well-known position.
b. It does discharge it; this is the view of most scholars and is the stronger opinion.”
Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad adds: “The portion of grapes customarily eaten fresh carries no zakat; whatever remains, if it reaches the nisab, is subject to zakat.”
- Imam Abū Dāwūd (3410) narrated from ʿĀʾishah that “the Prophet ﷺ used to send ʿAbd Allah ibn Rawāḥah to estimate the date-palms of Khaybar when their ripeness first appeared, before any of the fruit was eaten.” Supporting narrations confirm the legitimacy of the ruler’s appointing an estimator at the onset of ripeness; this is the view of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and the vast majority of scholars. The purpose of this estimation is to protect against any cheating by the owner.