Tadhīb al-Sunan: “Zakat is waived with respect to horses and slaves only when they are kept for service and riding; but when they are held for trade, zakat is due on their market value.”
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Zakat al-Fiṭr is obligatory for the slave in every situation, whether he is kept for service or for sale, because it is linked to his person, not to his monetary value like other trade goods.
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Whatever is set aside solely for personal use or mere possession is exempt from zakat, for the law of zakat is founded on parity. If an asset does not grow, the zakat would gradually consume it and its owner would be harmed.
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The earlier principle—that zakat is only required on growing wealth—is the basis for those who do not oblige zakat on jewellery intended for personal wear, and it is a sound argument. Yet the texts concerning gold and silver greatly strengthen the view that zakat on jewellery is compulsory in all cases, so caution dictates paying zakat on it.
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From such legal balancing between the poor person’s right and the wealthy person’s property one perceives the generosity of this Sharīʿah, the justice of its rulings, and its concern for people’s circumstances in light of the common good: “And who is better than Allah in judgment for a people who are certain in faith?” (Q 5:50).
The second ḥadith
Abu Hurayrah reports that the Messenger of Allah said,
“The dumb beast entails no liability, the well entails no liability, the mine entails no liability, and from buried treasure one-fifth is due.”
Explanatory notes
al-jabār: a loss for which no compensation is owed; it is deemed worthless in law.
al-ʿajmāʾ: a domesticated animal; it is called ʿajmāʾ (“dumb”) because it does not speak.
al-maʿdin: the place from which precious minerals and the like are extracted.
jabār (with ḍammah on the jīm): denotes a gratuitous loss that carries no liability.
al-rikāz: buried wealth driven into the earth—that is, the hoards of the pre-Islamic period.