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Owners who mingle their livestock are those whose animals remain distinguishable from one another’s. If their respective livestock are not distinguishable, they are joint owners. When two owners mingle their herds, they pay zakat as though the livestock constituted a single holding. For example, if each owns forty sheep, only one sheep is due on their combined herds, and they settle its cost between themselves.

Three conditions are stipulated for such mingling to count; according to another view, two conditions suffice, and according to another, just one. These concern sharing the bucket, watering trough, enclosure, overnight resting place, herdsman and breeding male.

Another view considers a shared herdsman alone sufficient, because he brings the two herds together, whereas the other things may be shared more widely.

Must each owner possess the minimum number subject to zakat for their mingling to count? Mālik held that this is required, while others held that it is not.

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If a person owns livestock that then reproduce, and the mothers constitute the minimum number subject to zakat, the majority hold that zakat is paid on the offspring along with their mothers, and that the offspring follow their mothers’ zakat year. If the mothers fall below that minimum,