and purchasing livestock with monetary wealth is that, when selling livestock for monetary wealth, he may be suspected of seeking to evade payment of zakat to the collector. No such suspicion attaches to purchasing livestock with monetary wealth if payment of zakat on monetary wealth is entrusted to his honesty and is not exacted from him.
Section
If a man has dinars and uses them to purchase livestock—camels, cattle, or sheep and goats—one of two situations applies: either the livestock reaches the threshold at which zakat becomes due, or it falls below that threshold. If it reaches the threshold, no zakat is due on it until a year has elapsed from the day he purchased it. He then pays the zakat prescribed for grazing livestock, whether he purchased it for personal keeping or for trade.
Section
If he sells the livestock, the ruling differs according to whether he purchased it for personal keeping or for trade. If he purchased it for personal keeping and sells it before paying zakat on the animals themselves, Mālik gave two opinions. On one occasion, he said that a new zakat year begins for the proceeds on the day of sale; on another, that he pays zakat on the proceeds once a year has elapsed from the day he purchased the livestock. By analogy, however, if no new zakat year begins for the proceeds, he should assess them according to the zakat year of the money with which he purchased the livestock.
If he sells the livestock after paying zakat on the animals themselves, it has been said that he pays zakat on the proceeds once a year has elapsed from the day he paid zakat on the animals, and that Mālik’s difference of opinion does not apply here. Muhammad ibn al-Mawwāz stated this in one passage. In another, however, he said that Mālik’s difference of opinion does apply: according to one of his two opinions, a new zakat year begins for the proceeds; according to the other, he pays zakat on them once a year has elapsed from the day he paid zakat on the animals themselves. Ibn Habīb likewise stated that Mālik’s difference of opinion applies to this case.
Section
If he purchased the livestock for trade and sells it before paying zakat on the animals themselves, he assesses the proceeds according to the zakat year of the money with which he purchased it. If he sells it after paying zakat on the animals themselves, he pays zakat on the proceeds once a year has elapsed from the day he paid zakat on the animals. There is no disagreement on this. Abū Ishāq said: