Zakāh Calculator

The nisāb is the threshold at which Zakāh becomes due: 87.48 g of gold (7.5 tola) or 612.36 g of silver (52.5 tola). Some scholars give the figures as 85 g and 595 g.

Where a person’s wealth is cash, silver, trade goods or a mixture, the Hanafī school applies the silver nisāb. It is by far the lower figure today, so more people are liable and more reaches those entitled to receive. Only someone whose wealth is gold and nothing else would use the gold nisāb. This calculator uses silver by default; you may switch at the top of the page.

Yes. This is one of the clearest positions of the Hanafī school: Zakāh is due on gold and silver whatever the owner’s intention — worn, stored, kept for a daughter’s wedding or held as an heirloom. The other three schools exempt jewellery in personal use, but the Hanafī position, followed across the Indian subcontinent and by British Deobandī scholars, does not.

Precious stones set into the piece — diamonds, rubies, pearls — are not themselves Zakātable. Only the weight of the gold or silver counts, unless the item is held as trade stock.

Enter the weight you hold at each carat. By default the calculator follows the Hanafī rule that where an alloy is more than half gold the whole item takes the ruling of gold, so the entire weight is valued at the gold price.

The alternative is to count only the fine gold content: 22ct is 91.67% gold, 21ct is 87.5%, 18ct is 75%, 14ct is 58.3% and 9ct is 37.5%. That is closer to the price a jeweller would pay for the metal. Select fine gold content as the valuation method in the Gold section to calculate it that way. Nine carat gold is under half gold, so it is always counted on its fine content. If your jewellery is not hallmarked, a jeweller will weigh and test it for you in a few minutes.

Only the instalments falling due in the next twelve months. That is the position published by the Al-Qalam Panel: the classical rulings allowing a debtor to deduct the whole debt were framed for short-term debts, and applying them to a twenty-five year mortgage would wipe out the Zakāh of almost every homeowner and deny the poor their right in the wealth of the rich.

So enter your monthly payment and the calculator deducts twelve months of it. The same applies to car finance, student loans and Islamic Home Purchase Plans. Debts that are genuinely due now — an overdue bill, an outstanding credit card balance — are deducted in full.

It depends on the scheme. On a defined benefit pension — NHS, teachers, civil service, any final salary scheme — the Panel’s ruling is that no Zakāh is due while you are still working, because you never own the fund before you draw it. Once payments arrive they are ordinary savings and Zakātable if still held on your Zakāh date.

On a defined contribution pot — a workplace pension, a personal pension or a SIPP — the pot is yours, and Zakāh is due on the Zakātable assets held inside it: cash and the Zakātable share of the companies invested in, not the buildings and machinery those companies own. Where the underlying breakdown is not available, scholars accept a cautious estimate; the calculator offers 25% as a starting point and lets you change it.

The Panel distinguishes three kinds of debt owed to you. A strong debt — money you lent, or goods you sold on credit — is Zakātable each year even before it comes back to you, provided the borrower acknowledges it. A weak debt, such as an inheritance or a settlement not yet in hand, only becomes Zakātable once you actually receive it. A medial debt, from selling a personal item, sits between the two.

Where the borrower denies the debt and you have no proof, or a court has declared them bankrupt, the practical position is that it is not Zakātable until recovered.

A tola is the traditional South Asian weight used for gold and silver, equal to 11.664 g. The nisāb figures are often quoted in tolas: 7.5 tola of gold and 52.5 tola of silver. If your jewellery was bought in Pakistan, India or Bangladesh it was very likely weighed in tolas, so the Gold and Silver sections let you switch the unit rather than convert by hand. A māsha is one twelfth of a tola, 0.972 g.

Zakāh is a tax on wealth held for growth, not on what you use. The house you live in, your car, furniture, clothing, books, and the tools, premises and machinery of your trade are all exempt however valuable they are. A buy-to-let property is not Zakātable either — but the rent you accumulate from it is.

In the Hanafī school a child is not liable for Zakāh, so wealth held in a child’s own name, such as a Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund, is left out of your calculation.

The figure on your Zakāh date. Your wealth must reach the nisāb at the start of the lunar year and still be at or above it when the year ends; what happens in between does not matter, and you do not need to track your balance day by day. If your wealth falls to nothing during the year, the year restarts from when you next reach the nisāb.

The Qur’ān names eight categories in Sūrah al-Tawbah, verse 60 — the poor, the destitute, those employed to collect it, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, freeing captives, the debt-ridden, the path of Allāh, and the wayfarer. Zakāh must be given with the intention of Zakāh, and it must transfer into the ownership of an eligible recipient, which is why it cannot be spent on building work, salaries or general overheads. It may not be given to your own parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren or spouse, nor to a sayyid.