It has likewise been said that merely sharing a single shepherd is enough to treat the two owners as intermixed partners, for by agreeing on the shepherd they effectively share most of the traits that constitute intermixing.

Scholars of Madinah other than Mālik hold that the owners do not pay the zakāt of intermixed flocks unless the intermixing has lasted a full lunar year; some of Mālik’s own companions endorsed this view as well.

Another group of Madinan scholars say: when ten or more partners possess forty sheep in common, one ewe is due in alms. In our estimation, Mālik’s opinion is closer to the truth—God willing—because the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “No zakāt is due on fewer than five camels, nor on fewer than forty sheep, nor on fewer than thirty head of cattle.”

The jurists also differed regarding two partners who own sheep jointly, with no individual animal assigned to either of them. One opinion states that they pay zakāt as though they were a single owner, without considering whether each possesses the minimum taxable amount (nisāb). Another, the view of Mālik, maintains that no zakāt is due until each partner individually holds a full nisāb.

The same principle applies to partners in gold, silver, or produce drawn from the earth: in every case liability is determined by each owner’s property reaching the complete nisāb, in light of the statement of