If a person owns only eighty grams of gold, no zakah is due; likewise, if he has five hundred and ninety grams of silver, he owes no zakah.

The jurists have differed over whether gold and silver may be combined to complete the nisab. In other words, if someone holds half the nisab of gold and half the nisab of silver, do the two halves add up so that zakah becomes obligatory, or not? The correct view is that they are not combined: gold is considered on its own and silver on its own. Just as wheat is not combined with barley, nor barley with wheat, so gold is not combined with silver, nor silver with gold. Thus, whoever possesses half the nisab of gold and half the nisab of silver is not liable for zakah.

To gold and silver we add everything that functions as their substitute—namely, modern currency, whether paper, copper, or any other material. Such money is zakatable once it reaches the nisab of either of the two precious metals; if it does not reach that level, no zakah is due. For example, if a person has three hundred riyals in banknotes that do not amount to the silver nisab, he pays no zakah, because the value of this currency is pegged to silver.

As for valuable stones that are neither gold nor silver—pearls, coral, and other minerals such as diamonds and the like—there is no zakah on them, no matter how much one owns, unless they are held for trade. Anything kept for commercial purposes is subject to zakah, whatever its type; but assets not intended for trade carry no zakah obligation, except in the case of gold and silver.

The second category of wealth on which zakah is obligatory is livestock—specifically camels, cattle,