If one has not paid zakat for several years, how does one go about calculating it?

[Hamza Asadullah]

Question: If one has not paid zakat for several years, how does one go about calculating it?

Answer: Sheikh Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari answers this question:

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,


Zakat becomes obligatory upon an individual when they become the owner of the appointed zakat-payable amount (nisab) for the first time in their life after reaching puberty. This nisab is 612.36 grams of silver or 87.48 grams of gold. If one has wealth to the value of the above-mentioned nisab, one will be known as sahib al-nisab, hence zakat will be obligatory at the rate of 2.5%. Thereafter, zakat will be payable each year at the appointed date.


It should also be remembered that zakat is to be paid only on certain items, namely: 1) Gold and silver, 2) Cash, 3) Merchandise (i.e. items for resale), 4) Agricultural produce, 5) Livestock. As such, one will have to add the value of all these types of wealth and pay 2.5% of the total.


Therefore, if you have not paid zakat for the previous years, you need to make a precautionary estimation as to the total wealth that was owned by you each year in the form of the items mentioned above. You need to estimate how much savings you had each year, whether the cash was at hand, in the bank, in the form of checks, financial certificates or any other form. You need to estimate how much gold or silver you possessed (if any) and how much business wealth (i.e. items for resale) you owned.


Whatever total amount you consider to be your savings for each year, zakat will be payable on that amount. In order to determine this correctly, you may look at your previous bank statements, your wage slips and anything else that may be of help. It would be better to pay slightly more than the amount that was estimated, so as not to pay an amount that is less than what was required. It is better to be safe and sure by paying more than the amount that was estimated.


And Allah knows best


Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Darul Iftaa, Leicester, UK

Here is a very quick and easy guide regarding paying Zakat and a Zakat calculator is also provided in order to calculate how much Zakat you how. There are also numbers you can call to get hold of scholars on any issue or questions you may have regarding the payment of Zakat.

http://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/Zakat.aspx

And Allah knows best in all matters

[distressed]

Salaam

whens the cut off time for zakaat payment ? I thort it had to be dun before the next ramadan ?? also if ive missed so many years, then what if i cant pay it all back in one go ? would it be ok, to pay over the course of a 1-2 years ? if i dont have the funds at this time ?

D

[Insaanah]

:salam:

We must remember that zakat is given every lunar year, so we must have an Islamic date that we calculate our zakat on that same Islamic date every lunar year. We can't have a certain date in the Gregorian calendar that we use, because over time we will miss giving a few years zakat, as the lunar calendar is approximately 10 days earlier per year.

There are three useful links below for those catching up on previous years zakat calculations.

It is helpful to use the online date converters that are available (Hijri to Gregorian), such as here: http://www.islamicfinder.org/dateConversion.php so that you can know what Gregorian date that would equate to, e.g. to help with when looking at bank statements. Also the Gregorian date can be used to work out the gold price on the day the zakat was due, for those who possess gold. One such site is here, where you put the units you'd like the price for e.g. g/oz, how much you have, the currency you'd like the price displayed in, and you tick "historical close" then choose the date, and then click on "pick a date and click", and it should give you the closing gold price for that day, and calculate the value of your gold for you based on the price that day. It also tells you the silver price.

http://goldprice.org/Calculators/Gol...lculators.html

If you have other currencies, there are also sites which tell you the exchange rate on a certain day, where you pick the currencies, and the date you want the exchange rate for, such as here: http://www.likeforex.com/misc/histor...-rates/EUR/USD