and the same applies if he is given cash or merchandise equal in value to the debt.
Whoever lets the time for paying zakat pass without discharging it now carries that amount as a debt; the sum owed may be deducted when calculating zakat on whatever cash he possesses. It makes no difference whether the outstanding zakat originally concerned cash, livestock, or agricultural produce—the liability in every case offsets zakat on coins.
If someone borrows a sum that reaches the niṣāb and keeps it for a full lunar year, then earns—through trading with it—another niṣāb, he pays zakat only on the surplus. No zakat is due on the original capital of the loan unless he owns merchandise sufficient to settle the debt, as mentioned earlier. Some hold, however, that he owes no zakat on either amount until a new lunar year has elapsed over the surplus.
A debt does not cancel zakat on livestock or the tithe on land; it merely suspends zakat on dinars and dirhams. Zakat al-Fiṭr, by contrast, falls away in the presence of debt.
If, after a year has elapsed, a creditor recovers from his debtor an amount that by itself meets the zakat threshold, he must pay zakat on it at once; thereafter, whatever further amounts he receives are zakatable the moment they come into his hand. Should he recover less than a niṣāb and own no other zakatable wealth, no zakat is due. If he does possess other zakatable assets, he adds the recovered sum to them and pays zakat on the total. Later, if his collections reach a full niṣāb, he must then pay zakat on everything he has taken.
If he recovers a niṣāb—or less—before a full year has passed, no zakat is due unless the money remains in his possession until a complete lunar year has elapsed.
When a claim that is itself subject to zakat remains with the debtor for a full year and the creditor then takes payment in the form of merchandise, he need not pay zakat on that merchandise—nor on its sale price, should he sell it—until a year has passed from the day the proceeds reach him, unless he intends the goods for trade, in which case he pays zakat on the capital from the outset, even if the debt were twenty dinars or—