Islamic Fiqh > Zakat > The nisab and the rate of zakat
The thresholds per type of wealth and the quarter-of-a-tenth rate: gold, silver, currencies, commercial goods.
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Consensus places zakat on the 2 currencies, gold and silver, with a known threshold: 20 dinars of gold (20 mithqal) and 200 dirhams of silver. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Nothing is due below 5 awaq of silver » (al-Bukhari 1484, Muslim 979), and: « Nothing is due on less than 20 mithqal of gold nor on less than 200 dirhams » (reported by Abu Ubayd in al-Amwal 1291).
When you have 200 dirhams and a year has passed, 5 dirhams are due, and nothing more; and for gold, nothing until you own 20 dinars: when you have 20 dinars and the year has passed, half a dinar is due, and whatever exceeds is calculated on that basis.
Abu Dawud 1573, at-Tirmidhi 616, an-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah 1790
The scholars know no disagreement on the rate: a quarter of the tenth, that is 2.5 per cent of the threshold and of any excess, per « on manumission, a quarter of the tenth » (Muslim 987). Ibn al-Mundhir reports consensus on the 5 dirhams due on 200. The threshold applies to gold and silver coined or not, melted or shaped (Ibn Hubayra).
The majority (Malikis, Shafiites, Hanbalis and the 2 companions of Abu Hanifa) take zakat on the excess pro rata, however small: on 200 and 10 dirhams, 5 on the 200 and a quarter dirham on the 10.
Abu Hanifa leaves a block of 40 dirhams: nothing is due on the surplus until it reaches 40 dirhams, which carry one dirham, and so on; likewise for gold in blocks of 4 mithqal. The Companions already differed: Umar on one side, Ali and Ibn Umar on the other.
The Hanafis look at both ends of the year: the threshold at start and end suffices, and a drop in the middle breaks nothing even if one dirham remains, provided something is left to which later gains attach. Shafiites and Hanbalis require the threshold throughout the year: a single animal missing during the year interrupts the count, which restarts.
The Malikis require the year to run on the threshold or on the capital that produced it, profit and newborn animals joining the origin. For trade goods assessed by value, the reliable Shafii position is the threshold at the end of the year only.
The majority (Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis in one narration) combine gold and silver: 15 mithqal of gold and one 100 and 50 dirhams of silver together form a zakatable threshold, each standing in place of the other as money. Shafiites and Hanbalis in the other narration require each category to reach its own threshold, per « nothing is due below 5 awaq ». Among those who combine, Malik, Abu Yusuf, Muhammad and Ahmad in one narration add the shares of the threshold (3 quarters and a quarter);
Abu Hanifa and Ahmad in the other convert by value in the way most favourable to the poor.
Three cases: the growth of the same wealth (trade profit, animal offspring) joins the origin and follows its year, without disagreement; wealth of another kind keeps its own year and its own threshold per the majority of schools; wealth of the same kind acquired independently joins the threshold but not the year for Shafiites and Hanbalis, each part being paid at its own date, while the Hanafis gather all at the first date to avoid fragmentation,
Abu Hanifa excepting the price of already-zakated wealth. The hadith says: « No zakat on wealth until a year passes over it » (Ibn Majah 1792), and: « Whoever acquires wealth owes no zakat until a year passes over it with its Lord » (at-Tirmidhi 631).
Bada'i al-Sana'i by al-Kasani · Hanafi school
...of its conditions and the exposition of the ruling of the one who paid in advance if it does not constitute zakat. As for the first, it is the disagreement we mentioned. Malik's view is that paying zakat is the payment of a duty, and the payment of a duty is not realized without obligation, and there is no obligation before the lapse of the year (hawl), according to the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "There is no zakat on wealth until a year has lapsed upon it". And for us, what was reported: "the Messenger of Allah took in advance from al-Abbas the zakat of two years". And the lowest degree of the Prophet's act (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is permission.
Bidayat al-Mujtahid by Ibn Rushd · comparative
Like the disagreement of Malik and al-Shafi'i regarding the olive: Malik held the obligation of zakat upon it, while al-Shafi'i, in his later view, denied that.
The cause of their disagreement: is it a foodstuff or not?
Of this chapter is the disagreement of Malik's companions over imposing zakat on the fig or not. Some held that zakat is due on fruits but not on vegetables, and this is the view of Ibn Habib, according to His words, glory be to Him: "It is He who produced gardens, trellised and untrellised" (al-An'am, 141 and following), and whoever distinguishes in the verse between fruits and the olive has no justification for his view, save a weak one.
Nisab = the value of 85 g of gold (or 595 g of silver) at due date: it varies with the market; zakat sites recompute it daily.
2.5% on money, savings and merchandise; 10% or 5% on crops per irrigation; the fifth (20%) on minerals and treasures.
Yes: 354 lunar days; one keeps his fixed lunar date (e.g. 1 Ramadan) as annual due date.
Due or imminent debts: yes, by contemporary consensus; long debts: deducting the coming year's installments is the most followed view.