Advice of Scholars - TO GIVE THE ZAKÂT OF ONE’S PROPERTY

The third fundamental of Islam is “to give the zakât of one’s property. ” The literal meaning of zakât is ‘purity, to praise, and become good and beautiful. ’ In Islam, zakât means ‘for a person who has property of zakât more than he needs and at a certain amount called nisâb to separate a certain amount of his property and to give it to Muslims named in the Qur’ân al-kerîm without reproaching them. ’ Zakât is given to seven kinds of people. There are four types of zakât in all of the four madhhabs: the zakât of gold and silver, the zakât of commercial goods, the zakât of the stock animals [sheep, goats and cattle] that graze in the fields for more than half a year, and the zakât of all kinds of substances of necessity issuing from the earth. This fourth type of zakât, called ’ushr, is given as soon as the crop is harvested. The other three are given one year after they reach the amount of nisâb.