Q. Is zakah an annual duty in the sense that money or property that is held for several years becomes liable to zakah every year? An imam in Madras, India, argues that once you paid zakah on some property, you do not have to pay zakah again on it forever. In other words, if one has 10,000 this year and pays zakah for this amount, then he finds himself with 18,000 next year, he pays zakah for 8,000 only, not for the total amount. Please comment.
A.P.J. Ali
A. I have answered this question more than once, as people wrote to me concerning it. I am afraid this argument is shallow and has no supporting evidence. Moreover, it defeats the purpose of zakah altogether, as it drastically reduces the amount of zakah paid. The primary purpose of zakah is to eradicate poverty and to help those who are economically disadvantaged in the Muslim community. If its amount is reduced, then it will not fulfill the task for which it has been legislated.
If we take the example cited by the reader, if in the second year the man has 18,000, he pays zakah on that total, and if his amount is 30,000 the following year, then zakah will be paid on that figure. Suppose the following year his business is not flourishing, and he finds himself with only 15,000, his zakah liability is for 15,000. In this case, his business may be losing, but the fact that he still has more than the threshold of zakah means that he is a zakah payer and he has to pay for all 15,000.
This is clearly indicated by the Hadith in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) mentions that he had taken his uncle, Al-Abbas’ zakah for a year in advance. Had it been true that only the new gain is zakahable, the Prophet would not have known how much his uncle’s liability would be, or whether he would be liable at all to pay zakah. He could not have asked him to pay it in advance.
From a very rational point of view, a person who has had his money increasing is in fact in a better situation and can better afford to pay zakah. How come we try to justify that he should pay less? What sort of equality do we establish in society if we ask one person who has 18,000 in his second year to pay as much as one who has only 8,000 the first year, when he is so much richer? Should he not express his gratitude to God better for not only giving him more than enough, but also increasing his property year after year?
Moreover, Muslims have been paying their zakah year after year, calculating it on the basis of the total amount, ever since the Prophet’s time. How come no scholar of repute ever said what this imam is saying? This is the common practice of all Muslims, everywhere in the world. All that we can say is that this imam stands on shallow grounds, and he has no evidence to support his view. He is totally mistaken.
