and if the owner has only an animal older or younger than the prescribed age, what is the ruling in that situation?

Another point of dispute is whether zakāt is due on suckling or very young camels; and, if it is, what exactly must be given in their place.

As for the first issue—their disagreement over what is owed on any number beyond one hundred and twenty camels—Mālik held that once the herd exceeds one hundred and twenty by a single head (i.e., reaches one hundred and twenty-one), the collector may choose: he may take either three bint labūns (two-year-old she-camels) or two ḥiqqahs (three-year-old she-camels). This continues until the herd reaches one hundred and thirty, at which point the due changes to one ḥiqqah and two bint labūns.

Ibn al-Qāsim, one of Mālik’s foremost students, maintained instead that the collector must take three bint labūns—without any option—until the herd reaches one hundred and eighty, after which one ḥiqqah and two bint labūns are required. Al-Shāfiʿī said the same.

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Mājishūn, another Mālikī jurist, argued that the collector should take only two ḥiqqahs, with no alternative, up to one hundred and thirty.

The Kufan scholars—Abū Ḥanīfah, his associates, and Sufyān al-Thawrī—contended that once the herd surpasses one hundred and twenty the schedule reverts to its starting point. By “reverts” they mean that for every additional five camels a sheep is due. Thus:
• At one hundred and twenty-five, two ḥiqqahs and one sheep are taken—the two ḥiqqahs for the original one hundred and twenty, the sheep for the extra five.
• At one hundred and thirty, two ḥiqqahs and two sheep are due.
• At one hundred and thirty-five, two ḥiqqahs and three sheep, and so on up to one hundred and forty, where two ḥiqqahs and four sheep are taken.
• When the herd reaches one hundred and forty-five, the due becomes two ḥiqqahs and a bint makhāḍ (a one-year-old she-camel): the two ḥiqqahs for the first one hundred and twenty, the bint makhāḍ for the additional twenty-five, just as in the original schedule. This holds until one hundred and fifty.
• At one hundred and fifty the obligation is three ḥiqqahs. If the herd exceeds one hundred and fifty, the initial schedule is applied once more until it reaches two hundred, when four ḥiqqahs are due; thereafter the cycle begins again.

All the jurists other than the Kufans agree that once the herd exceeds one hundred and thirty, the assessment is: for every forty camels a bint labūn, and for every fifty a ḥiqqah.

The root of their disagreement over whether the schedule resets lies in the divergence of the transmitted reports. It is established in the Prophet’s Book of Ṣadaqah that he—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Whatever exceeds one hundred and twenty, for every forty a bint labūn is due, and for every fifty a ḥiqqah.”

Yet another report, transmitted through Abū Bakr ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm from his father, from his grandfather, states that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—wrote in the same document:

“When the camels exceed one hundred and twenty, the prescribed cycle is completed.”