Zakat is the third pillar of Islam: an annual payment of 2.5% of qualifying wealth, given to those entitled to it. It is not a tax on income. It is due on the wealth you actually hold on your Zakat date, once that wealth has stayed at or above a minimum threshold, the Nisab, for one full lunar year, the Hawl.
The Nisab
The Nisab is defined in gold and silver: 87.48 g of gold (20 mithqal, often rounded to 85 g) or 612.36 g of silver (200 dirhams, often rounded to 595 g). Because silver is far cheaper, the silver Nisab is a much lower amount of money. The Hanafi school applies the silver Nisab to cash and mixed wealth so that more people qualify and more reaches the poor; the Shafi‘i, Maliki and Hanbali schools generally apply the gold Nisab. National bodies publish their own conventions: BAZNAS in Indonesia and the state zakat centres in Malaysia use 85 g of gold, Diyanet in Türkiye uses 80.18 g of gold and 561.2 g of silver. Our calculators default to the convention of each language’s country and let you change it.
What is zakatable
- Gold and silver in any form, valued at today’s price of the pure metal. Jewellery in regular use is zakatable in the Hanafi school and exempt in the other three; paying is the safer course.
- Cash in hand, in banks and digital wallets, savings-circle contributions you have paid in, bonds and certificates, foreign currency, and money others owe you that you expect to recover.
- Investments: shares, funds, crypto-assets and the withdrawable part of pension or provident funds.
- Trade goods: stock, raw materials and property bought to resell, valued at what you could sell them for on your Zakat date, plus business cash and collectible receivables. Premises, machinery and equipment used to run the business are not zakatable.
- Crops (Ushr): one-tenth of the harvest from rain-fed land, one-twentieth from irrigated land, due at harvest with no Hawl.
- Livestock that grazes freely for most of the year: camels from 5, cattle from 30, goats and sheep from 40, with the animal due set by the brackets recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 1454.
What is not
Your home, personal vehicle, furniture, clothing and other items for personal use; business premises and equipment; and property held for your own use rather than resale.
Debts
Debts, bills and instalments that fall due within the coming year are deducted from your zakatable assets before the 2.5% is applied. Long-term debt such as a mortgage is deducted only to the extent of the instalments due in the year, according to most contemporary scholars.
Hawl and your Zakat date
The day your wealth first reached the Nisab starts your year. On the same Hijri date the following year, Zakat is due on whatever zakatable wealth you hold then, even if it rose and fell in between. If your wealth drops below the Nisab and later recovers, the year restarts. Many people fix a date in Ramadan for ease. Our Hawl tracker stores your date on your own device and shows the next due date in both calendars.
Who receives Zakat
The Qur’an (9:60) names eight categories: the poor, the needy, those who administer it, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, freeing captives, those in debt, in the cause of Allah, and the stranded traveller. Zakat cannot be given to one’s own dependants or to those who are themselves above the Nisab.