our land 23 years ago. Praise be to Allah, my father and I are settled
now and we have a business. We borrowed money in order to settle and
start a business, the value of which was 1 million. When we worked out
the value of zakaah that we owe on the property and trade goods that
wehave in our possession, it was estimated to be 7 million, and the
trade goods on which zakaah is due are worth 5 or 6 million.
My questions are:
1. Are we required to pay zakaah, as we have not paid it all these
yearsbecause we were not able to pay off the debt of 1 million? Was it
correct for us not to pay zakaah?
2. We do not have any cash now, if we are required to pay zakaah. We
helped a brother of ours to pay off a debt heowed, so that he could
pay off the borrowed amount without paying the interest that had been
agreed upon. Is it possible for us to waive this debt and thus pay off
the zakaah that we owe?
3. We own some property in the country where the war was, that we took
possession of after the war ended, andwe are planning to sell this
property in order to pay off debts and so thatwe can buy a house in
the place where we live now. Is this property subject to zakaah?.
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Zakaah is due on trade goods according to the correct scholarly
opinion. Whatever has been prepared for trade is subject to zakaah if
it reaches the nisaab or minimum threshold and one hijri year has
passedsince the capital was acquired.
Secondly:
According to the correct scholarly view, debt does not mean that
zakaah is waived. If a person owns the minimum threshold and one hijri
year has passed, he must pay his zakaah, even if he owes a debt that
brings his wealth lower than the minimum threshold. But if he pays off
his debts before the new zakaah year begins, and his wealth falls
below the minimum threshold, then he does not have topay anything.
See the answer to question no. 109896
Thirdly:
Based on the above, you have to pay zakaah for the years during which
you did not pay zakaah when it was due from you. The fact that you did
not know that debt does not waive the obligation of zakaah does not
cancel out the obligation that was due from the wealth, even if it
does mean that the burden of sin for not paying zakaah on time
iswaived.
Fourthly:
If a person lends money to someone, he does nothave the right to let
him off and count it as part of his zakaah. This is the view of the
majority of scholars. So you do not have the right to count what you
lent to this person as being part of your zakaah. But if you gave him
the zakaah of your wealth, and he returned it to you in order to pay
off his debt or part of it, there is no blame on you for that.
See the answer to question no. 13901 . Based on that, it is not
permissible for you to count what you lent to this man as part of your
zakaah.
Fifthly:
If zakaah is due from a person and he does not have any cash with
which to pay the zakaah,then he has the choice: either he can sell
some of the wealth on which zakaah is due and pay the zakaah; or he
can give some of the trade goods that he has that are equal in value
to the zakaah he owes, if thosegoods are things that will be of
benefit to the poor, such as food, clothing and so on; or this zakaah
may remain something that he owes until he acquires cash with which to
pay zakaah, if selling something on which zakaah is due will affect
him adversely. See the answer to question no. 177963
Sixthly:
With regard to the property in the land where war occurred, if you
could not dispose of it or reach it because of the war, no zakaah is
due on it for the past period, because it comesunder the ruling on
property that was usurped and could not be disposed of. But as you
have been able to obtain it and dispose of it, then to be on the safe
side you should pay zakaah of one year on it for what has passed, even
if it was many years. See the answer to question no. 129657
All of this applies if this wealth was things on which zakaah is due
in the first place, such as cash, gold, silver and thelike. As for
property suchas agricultural land and real estate, there is no zakaah
on that at all; rather zakaah is due on the crops and returns. During
wartime, there were no crops or returns.
And Allah knows best.
No comments:
Post a Comment