age for paying Zakaah ?

[Sajid Karim]

Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

Imam, please clear some confusion, what is the correct age for starting to pay off Zakaah. Is it when a child becomes an adult (puberty age) or when he gets married or starts full time employment or earns ?

Also what if a parent is living off benefits, and is responsible for the keep of relatives children, that is teenagers, is zakaah valid for them too ?

Jazakallah for your reply.

[Imam]

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,


All Praise be to Allah who is the Lord of the Worlds, and may Endless Blessings be showered upon our Most Beloved, and Final Messenger of Islam, Hadrat Muhammad Mustafa (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa aalihi wa Sallam)


Jazak'Allah for your valued question on Zakaah. One of the conditions of paying Zakaah, is that a person must have reached the age of puberty. This is one of the conditions from amongst a few, that I have mentioned.


If a person has not reached the age of puberty, then there is no obligation upon him, for paying Zakaah.


If a person starts to pay Zakaah when he is married, then he will owe all the Zakaah calculated, from the age of puberty. For example, if a person was married at the age of twenty, and he reached the age of puberty at fifteen, and he started paying Zakaah at the age of twenty, then he must pay five years extra Zakaah, from the age of fifteen to twenty, which he owes.


A similar scenario is followed, if a person started to pay Zakaah when he started employment. Only that, if he had no savings while he was unemployed, then there is no Zakaah on him, as he had no taxable income, in the form of savings, that he could pay Zakaah on.


Zakaah is valid on all Muslim persons, who have reached the age of puberty, who are sane, who are free, and not slaves, who reach the minimum taxable income (which is a fourteeth of every hundred pound/pound), i.e. who are known as 'sahib-e-nisab', they must also be in posession of that money, it must be free from any debt, and he must have posessed it for a period of one year.


If a person is living off benefits, and has a few hundred pound savings, and he fulfils the above criteria, then he will be liable to pay Zakaah for himself. He would not pay any Zakaah for anyone who has not reached the age of puberty, although he may do so, if he wishes to gain reward.


He will however have to pay for the persons who have reached the age of puberty, and have no income, (for example students)if they allow him to do so, although it may not be fard upon them because they may not have any savings.


Once they do have savings, then they will pay their own Zakaah, and any outstanding Zakaah from previous years, that they have not yet paid. It is best to pay your Zakaah off, as soon as possible, as death may be unforseeable.


May Allah the Almighty give us all the tawfiq, to spend in His way, and may He help us to understand the importance of the obligations that we owe to Him.



Wallahu A'lamu Biththawaab



M. Waseem Ashrafi