Zakat of crops and fruits

The rate: tithe and half-tithe by irrigation

Consensus places zakat on crops, its measure following the water: « What the sky and the springs water, or what grows of itself, bears the tenth; what is watered at the price of effort bears half the tenth » (al-Bukhari 1412, Muslim 981). Muadh was ordered in Yemen: the tenth on rainwater and spontaneous watering, half the tenth on watering by contrivance (an-Nasa'i 2490, Ibn Majah 1818). The rule: any watering needing labour or machinery, waterwheel, pulley, well, means half the tenth; digging canals reduces nothing, such cost counting as land clearing. A year half irrigated yields three quarters of the tenth by agreement; irrigation of unknown proportion: Hanbalis impose the tenth as a precaution, Shafiites three quarters; the majority follows the dominant watering, Shafiites weighing each part.

The products subject

Consensus: wheat, barley, dates and raisins (Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abd al-Barr). Abu Hanifa and Zufr extend it to every cultivated product aimed at developing the land, vegetables and seeds included, exclusion following purpose rather than species. Abu Yusuf and Muhammad: grains and products keeping a year without effort, among them rice, millet, lentils, chickpeas. Malikis: twenty listed categories, two fruits and eighteen grains and seeds, nothing beyond unless in trade. Shafiites: staple foods only, excluding vegetables and non-drying fruits. Hanbalis: every measurable and storable product; Ahmad in one narration and some Kufans return to the four categories of consensus.

No year, a threshold

All schools alike: no year on crops, « give its due on the day of harvest » (Surah al-An'am, 141): growth ends at cutting, as with mining. The threshold is five wasq by majority consensus, per « nothing is due below five wasq of dates nor of grain » (al-Bukhari 1413, Muslim 979). Abu Hanifa rejects it: the tenth falls on small and large, the general hadith outweighing the threshold text, never dropping below half a sa.

Sharecropping, leasing and borrowing land

In sharecropping and shared irrigation, the majority (Abu Yusuf and Muhammad among Hanafis, Malikis, Shafiites, Hanbalis in one narration) place the tenth on the total produce before division, each partner then taking a net share; Abu Hanifa places it on the landowner alone, the contract being void in his view. Leased or borrowed land: the majority puts the tenth on the cultivator, the right following the grain and not the soil; Abu Hanifa keeps it with the lessor for rent, the borrower for a loan. Measuring before division comes from Abdullah ibn Rawaha's practice with the Jews of Khaybar: appraisal before ripeness, then choice left to the farmers (Abu Dawud 3413, 3415). What is deducted before the tenth is debated: Hanafis, Malik and al-Shafii deduct neither seed nor wages; Ahmad admits the farming expense; Malikis, with Ibn al-Arabi, deduct the cost then take the tenth of the net, relying on « leave a third of it, or a quarter » (Abu Dawud 1605).

Honey and animal products

Hanafis, Hanbalis and early al-Shafii impose the tenth on honey: the Prophet took its tenth (Ibn Majah 1824), a man came with the tenth of his hives (Abu Dawud 1600), and « in honey, for every ten skins one skin » (at-Tirmidhi 629). Malikis and Shafiites place nothing on it, for lack of a sound text, honey being akin to milk, exempt by consensus. The honey threshold: Abu Hanifa omits it; Abu Yusuf sets it at the value of five wasq of the cheapest grain; Ahmad at ten farq, that is one hundred and sixty ratl in one reading. Silk, wool and milk stay outside zakat. Fish is exempt among all, save an isolated opinion of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.

Practical note

Agricultural zakat is paid at harvest, at the rate fixed by the water: tenth or half-tenth, on the dried produce reaching five wasq. The schools differ on the list of products and on deductible costs; the common point remains the direct link between watering effort and a lighter rate.