Chapter on the Zakāt of Cattle

According to Mālik, no zakāt is due on cattle until the herd numbers thirty head, whether the animals graze freely or are used for labor. Once they reach thirty and a full lunar year has elapsed, one tabiʿ (yearling) is taken—a jadhʿ, male or female, that has begun to pasture on its own. For forty head a musinnah (two-year-old) is required; for sixty, two tabiʿs; for seventy, one tabiʿ and one musinnah; for eighty, two musinnahs; for ninety, three tabiʿs; and for one hundred, two tabiʿs and one musinnah. Above that, the rule is: one tabiʿ for every additional thirty, and one musinnah for every additional forty. Nothing is taken for the awqāṣ (the intermediate numbers that fall between these thresholds).

The creature classed as a jadhʿ is an animal that no longer needs its dam; its upper age limit is two years. A male is preferred, though a female tabiʿah suffices. A musinnah must be at least a thanīyah—roughly four years old—or older. Cattle and water buffalo are treated identically.

Calves are counted together with their mothers in the same way that foals and lambs are counted with theirs, provided the dams themselves already constitute a niṣāb (zakātable minimum). If the dams die and only the calves remain, zakāt becomes obligatory on the calves once they alone reach the niṣāb.

In Mālik’s view, the owner must hand over the specified age-class: a tabiʿ when the herd numbers thirty, or a musinnah when it reaches forty.