Fourth Clause: The Due Time for Zakāt
As for the time when zakāt becomes obligatory, the majority of jurists stipulate that a full lunar year (ḥawl) must elapse before zakāt is due on gold, silver, and livestock. They base this on reports from the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, on its widespread transmission among the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—and on the continuous practice of the Muslim community, holding that such universal acceptance could only rest on explicit Prophetic guidance. A marfūʿ report from Ibn ʿUmar relates that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:
“Zakāt is not due on wealth until a year has passed over it.”
This is the unanimous position of the jurists of the major centers, and in the earliest generations no contrary view is recorded except what is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās and Muʿāwiyah.
The reason for disagreement is the absence of a rigorously authenticated ḥadīth on the matter.
From this issue eight well-known subsidiary questions have arisen:
- Whether the lapse of a year is required for extracted minerals when we say that one-quarter of a tenth is due on them.
- How to reckon the year with respect to profit earned on capital.
- The year for returns accruing to property that is already subject to zakāt.
- Whether a year is required for debts, assuming zakāt is payable on them.
- Whether a year is required for trade goods, should we deem them zakāt-liable.
- The year for the increase (faʾidah) of livestock.
- The year for newborn lambs if they are added to their mothers—either according to those who require the mothers themselves to constitute a niṣāb, namely al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah, or according to those who do not, namely Mālik.
- The permissibility of paying zakāt before the year has completed.
Regarding the first question—minerals—al-Shāfiʿī requires both the niṣāb and the completion of a year, whereas Mālik requires only the niṣāb, not the year.
Their difference stems from the mineral’s resemblance, on the one hand, to agricultural produce, which is zakāt-liable immediately upon harvest, and, on the other, to coined gold and silver kept in one’s possession. Whoever likens minerals to agricultural produce dispenses with the year; whoever likens them to minted gold and silver insists upon it—and the latter comparison is clearer. Allah knows best.