and this is the position of the scholars, early and later.

Secondly: Zakāh is obligatory only on assets that have the capacity to grow and increase; as for property kept purely for personal use, no zakāh is due on it. This is the Islamic criterion that distinguishes what is liable for zakāh from what is not.

Thirdly: Al-Bayhaqī (7328) and Ibn al-Jawzī in al-Taḥqīq (2/43) relate, on the authority of Jābir, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “No zakāh is due on jewellery.” Many meticulous ḥadith scholars have declared this narration authentic, among them Abū Zurʿah, Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Mundhirī, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī.

Fourthly: The Prophet’s letters in which he set out the rulings of zakāh—documents subsequently conveyed and implemented by the rightly guided caliphs—list in detail the kinds of wealth on which zakāh is obligatory. Nowhere in those letters is jewellery mentioned; they speak only of the two minted currencies, the dinar and the dirham, which functioned as the mediums of trade.

Fifthly: Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah observed that the Lawgiver took special care to clarify the properties on which zakāh is due, because the obligation is an exception to the default and therefore requires explicit statement. By contrast, items on which zakāh is not required need no mention, for non-obligation is the default.

Sixthly: How could the report in which the Prophet ﷺ supposedly threatened the Fire over ʿĀʾishah’s bangles be authentic, when she herself never paid zakāh on the jewellery in her possession and under her control, despite her paying zakāh on other forms of wealth?

Seventhly: This is the view adopted by the majority of scholars among the Companions, the Successors, and the leading imams of ḥadith and fiqh—such as Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Sufyān, Abū ʿUbayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Jarīr, and their followers from among the foremost scholars of the Muslims, past and present.

In conclusion, the soundest and most equitable opinion on this question is that jewellery kept for personal adornment or for lending is not subject to zakāh, so long as the jewellery itself is lawful. If the jewellery is impermissible, however, zakāh must be paid on it.