Abū Isḥāq said, “We have recorded this issue from al-Kawsaj: zakat is due on the sale proceeds if he sells it.” He said, “On this basis, two narrations follow, because according to our legal principle, monetary value is not accepted for zakat.”
The matter is as Abū Isḥāq stated: whenever the permissibility of paying monetary value is established when the nisab is sold, its permissibility is likewise established when it remains unsold; there is no difference between the two.
If the fruits are destroyed after having been assessed, through a calamity originating on land or from the sky, before payment of zakat becomes possible, the zakat is waived. If they are destroyed after payment has become possible, it is collected. Aḥmad said in the narration of Ḥanbal: “If their produce has been assessed and left on the palm trees, they must safeguard it. If a calamity from heaven strikes it and destroys the fruit, it is not collected, and the assessment is waived.”
The third category of zakatable property is crops. Zakat is due on any produce that is both measured and storable, such as wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, fava beans, cowpeas, chickpeas, lentils, millet, and vetch.
As for ʿalas, it is a type of wheat that is combined with wheat. It has two husks, and zakat is not due on it while it remains in its husk unless it reaches ten awsuq. The same applies to rice in its husk. As for sult, it is a type of barley that is combined with barley. Jāwars is a type of millet that is combined with millet.
Zakat is also due on sesame, flaxseed, mustard, hempseed, cumin, and caraway. It is due as well on inedible produce, such as cotton and flax, according to one of the two narrations reported by Yaʿqūb ibn Yakhtān. Abū Dāwūd reported: “There is no zakat on cotton.”
He said in the narration of Abū Ṭālib: “Zakat is given from everything that is measured and stored, such as wheat, barley, sorghum, sult, raisins, dates, lentils, chickpeas, mustard, and the like.” He said in the narration of al-Athram: “It is due on fava beans, rice, and cowpeas.” He said in the narration of Mihnā: “It is due on sesame and hempseed.”
The tithe is not due on herbs and vegetables, such as cucumbers, gourds, eggplants, and watermelons.
As for plants that people have not cultivated, but which grow in valleys and mountains and are both measured and stored—such as almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, sumac, ḥabbat al-khaḍrāʾ (the green seed), al-ghubayrāʾ, and jujubes—then, by analogy with his position, the tithe should be due on them. This is because he explicitly stated that zakat is due on honey collected from these places.