paying zakah with bankruptcy stock

[ashrafi chaman]

Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

What does someone do, if their business has failed, and they have no money, but small amount of money left over from shop and some stock from retail business. Do they cash this stock in to pay zakah ?

[Imam]

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem,

Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,



Praise be to Allah the Master of All the Worlds, and may Endless Blessings be showered upon His Most Beloved Prophet & Final Messenger (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam).


Zakah is fard on any savings one has, and where one intends to pay zakah from a business which has failed, then by cashing whatever stock is left over from the bankrupt business, in order to get the money to pay zakah is fine. The salvation of the soul, and Islamic devotions, a book translated by Muhammad Abul Qasem, and is thought to be a translation of the book 'Nur-al-Iydhah' states:


'If a person posesses measurable things or weighable goods, which is equivalant to the minimum liable to divine tax (nisab), for a period of one year, but has not paid the divine tax due on these, and then their value has increased or decreased, and now he pays the divine tax in kind, one fourth of one tenth of them, then this is approved by the law.'


From here it is seen that if a person has goods for at least a period of a year, then regardless of whether the value has decreased of those goods, then as long as he reaches the minimum threshold for paying the zakah (around two hundred pounds in cash), then he is liable to pay zakah (one fourteeth of the value of the goods).


Normally stocks which are left over from a bankrupt business, are normally sold for cash, unless it is a means of another re-investment. However, if this cash is then used to pay any zakah that is owed then that is perfectly permissable, regardless of having kept the cash for a period of twelve months or not.


I hope that the few mentioned issues regarding zakah, will be of help to you , and hope that they will ease your payments regarding zakah. I pray to Allah the Almighty that, may He keep us firm on all the fara'id that we owe to Him, and may He make our lives according to what He has stipulated, and not according to the world.


May Allah forgive us all in this world, and the Hereafter.



Wallahu A'lamu Biththawaab


M. Waseem Ashrafi