zakat on shares?

[newcomer]

Assalam-u-Laykum W.W,

Imam Saheb I hope you are in the best of health and may Allah reward you for your efforts on this forum.

I have a few queries about the caluclation of zakat and was hoping someone could shed some light on the matter. The queries below may seem very mundane but I want to ensure I am paying the correct amount of zakat.

(when I mention year it indicates a lunar year)

[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 His Most Beloved, and Final Messenger of Islam Hadrat Muhammad Mustafa Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam


Jazak'allah for your question. Where a person has £100 in his bank account, and that remained with him for the full year, then the £100 is 'zakatable.' The general rule to remember is that the person must have had the minimum amount of savings in his account for a whole year for it to be 'zakatable.' If he withdrew, and spent some, or paid some bills, and the amount lessened, then the threshold at which the amount decreased the lowest to, will be 'zakatable.'


In the case of shares, it will be appropriate, and safe to pay zakat on the dividends which he recieves from the shares. This can either be deposited into an account and the whole amount of the cash would be 'zakatable,' or just the actual dividend itself, however, since the shares are immovable, and cannot be seen, in principle, it will actually be treated like owning a house, or part of a house, and that will not hold any zakat.


As mentioned above, there is no zakat on a house owned by a person, or on its value. However, if there is a rental income on that house, and provided it is kept for a year, then such an income is 'zakatable.'


Since the pension money is not in his possession, and will be in 20 years time, there is no zakat on such an investment, which is never to be seen. Once the person receives a pension, and holds that pension in his account as savings for a whole unbreakable year, then yes, that will be 'zakatable.'


However this is only in effect once the person is in possession of the funds, as no one knows, one can even die tomorrow, and receive no pension at all.


I sincerely hope that I have painted a more clearer picture to you, in reference to paying zakat.



Wallahu A'lamu Biththawaab



M. Waseem Ashrafi