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Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, opened the Book of Zakat in his Muwatta’ with the hadith of Abū Sa‘īd, because it is the most authentic report on this subject. Muslim did likewise in his Sahīh. This hadith mentions the minimum thresholds for silver, camels, grain, and fruit.

Since livestock and money must be held for a full year, Mālik followed this with reports from Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, establishing this requirement. Even if Mu‘āwiyah and Ibn ‘Abbās differed with them, what the caliphs narrated or stated constitutes authoritative evidence against those who disagree with them, especially al-Siddīq, for the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me.”

He also said:

“If the people obey Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, they will be rightly guided.”

Mālik then discussed “the minimum threshold for gold.” The evidence for it is weaker than that for silver, which is why he placed it later.

He then discussed the types of wealth on which zakat is levied, citing the relevant hadiths and Quranic verses. The strongest of these are the hadith of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb and his written instructions concerning zakat. He also reported from ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz that zakat is due only on money and crops