Chapter on Zakat of Produce

No zakat is due on any kind of fruit except that which grows on date-palms and grapevines; all other produce mentioned in the Qur’an together with them—such as pomegranates and the like—is exempt. The same rule applies to walnuts, almonds, figs, and every other variety of fruit so long as it is not normally stored as staple food. Whatever of those fruits is customarily stored as nourishment is subject to zakat according to the later Baghdadi Mālikīs and others, and they regard this as the correct distillation of Mālik’s position.

Accordingly, zakat is obligatory on dried figs, for they are eaten in times of need and are habitually stored. As for the other fruits we listed alongside figs, they are seldom stored and are not, for the most part, staple food—Allah knows best.

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb held this view regarding zakat on figs. Mālik, for his part, considered zakat obligatory on olives, sesame, ḥabb al-māshir, and radish seed, calculated at one-tenth of the oil extracted from them after processing.

Zakat is not obligatory on dates, grapes, or, according to those Mālikīs who impose it, on figs unless each of them—after drying and in the form in which it is kept—reaches five awsuq. Once that amount is attained, the zakat due is one-tenth on produce watered by rain, rivers, or springs, or that relies solely on natural moisture (baʿl). As for produce irrigated by lifting devices or water-wheels,