Nisab
Nisab is the minimum amount of wealth a Muslim must hold before Zakat becomes due. It is fixed against set weights of gold and silver, so its value in pounds moves with the metal price. Anyone whose qualifying wealth stays below it owes no Zakat that year.
What the Word Means
The Arabic root behind nisab carries the sense of setting something firmly in place. The word came to mean a fixed starting point-the line at which something begins to count.
It works as a floor rather than a target. Reaching it does not mean you have done well; it means a duty now applies that did not apply before. Someone below the line is not failing in anything, and may well be among those entitled to receive.
Where the Threshold Comes From
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ set out minimum amounts below which no Zakat is owed. In one narration he stated that there is no Zakat on fewer than five camels, on less than five awaq of silver, or on less than five awsuq of dates (Sahih al-Bukhari 1459; also in Sahih Muslim).
Five awaq comes to 200 dirhams of silver. The matching figure for gold, 20 mithqal-also called 20 dinars-comes from other reports and is accepted by all four Sunni schools.
Notice that the same narration deals with camels and crops. Nisab was never only about money. Livestock have their own counts, and farm produce has a threshold of five awsuq, with its own rate. Most people in the UK only ever meet the monetary thresholds, which is why the gold and silver figures are the ones usually quoted.
Why the Two Thresholds No Longer Match
In the Prophet's ﷺ time, 20 dinars of gold and 200 dirhams of silver were worth roughly the same. Either could be used and the answer came out much alike.
That is no longer true. The price of gold has pulled far ahead of silver over the centuries, so the two thresholds now produce very different figures. The gold threshold is worth several times the silver one.
This has a real effect on who pays. Using gold sets a high bar, so fewer people owe Zakat. Using silver sets a much lower bar, so more people owe it and more reaches those entitled to receive.
Scholars differ on which to apply. Many contemporary scholars favour silver, on the grounds that it was the everyday currency of the time and that the lower threshold benefits the poor. Others hold that gold is the sounder measure for someone whose wealth is in cash rather than silver, and that the silver threshold has fallen so low that it no longer reflects what it once did. Both positions are held by serious scholars, and a charity or calculator will normally state which one it follows.
[HAF policy sentence to be inserted here once the decision in section 9 is made-one line stating which threshold HAF applies and why.]
Why Different Charities Show Different Figures
Compare two Zakat calculators on the same day and the numbers rarely match exactly. Three things cause that.
The weights used.
Converting a dirham or a mithqal into grams depends on which historical estimate you accept. For gold, some use 85 grams and others 87.48 grams. For silver, some use 595 grams and others 612.36 grams. The gap is under three per cent, but it moves the final figure. HAF's calculator uses 87.48 grams of gold and 612.36 grams of silver.
Gold or silver.
As above, this produces the largest difference by far.
The price and the moment.
Metal prices move all day. Two calculators pulling from different price feeds, or updating at different times, will disagree slightly even when everything else matches.
None of this makes any of them wrong. It does mean a figure is only meaningful alongside the date it was taken and the standard it used. HAF's
Zakat calculator
holds the current figure.
Working Out Whether You Reach It
Add up everything Zakat applies to and compare the total against the threshold. That is the step most often misunderstood. You do not need to own 87 grams of gold to owe Zakat on gold. Cash, savings, gold, silver, shares and business stock are added together, and the combined value is measured against the threshold. Someone with no gold at all can still pass it comfortably.
Debts you owe generally come off the total first, which can bring someone back below the line.
You check on your Zakat date, using the threshold as it stands that day. Checking in March and paying in September against a March figure will give the wrong answer.
There is a well-known difference about what happens in between. The Hanafi school holds that your wealth needs to be above the nisab at the start and the end of your Zakat year, and that dips during the year do not matter. The other schools hold that it must stay above throughout, so falling below at any point restarts the clock. In practice, most people following the Hanafi position find this simpler to track. For everything else about who pays and who may receive, see
Zakat.
Nisab, Hawl and the Rate
Three separate things decide what is owed, and they are easy to run together.
Nisab is the threshold: does the duty apply at all? Hawl is the timing: has a full lunar year passed with your wealth above that threshold? The rate is the amount: a fortieth, or 2.5%, of the qualifying total. All three must line up before a payment is due, and the rate never changes even though the threshold does.
Zakat al-Fitr, or Fitrana, works differently. The Hanafi school requires a person to hold the nisab in surplus wealth before it becomes due, though without the year-long waiting period. The other schools require only that a household has food to spare beyond its needs over Eid. Fitrana is therefore owed by many families who owe no Zakat at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is where the schools differ. Hanafi scholars look at the start and end of your Zakat year only, so a dip in the middle changes nothing. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools hold that wealth must remain above the threshold throughout, and that dropping below restarts the year. Follow the position of the school you belong to, or ask a scholar.
Your assets are added together and the total is compared against a single threshold, rather than each asset being tested on its own. Where someone holds a mixture, most contemporary scholars apply the silver threshold, since it is lower and more cautious. If HAF's stated policy differs, follow that consistently rather than switching between the two.
On the whole amount. The threshold decides whether Zakat is owed, not how much of your wealth it applies to. Someone slightly above the line pays a fortieth of their entire qualifying wealth, not a fortieth of the small amount by which they passed it.
The measure itself has never changed: it is still 200 dirhams of silver and 20 mithqal of gold. What changes is what those weights are worth in pounds, which moves daily with the metal markets. Any figure you see quoted is only accurate for the day it was published.
No. It falls due on your own zakat anniversary, whatever month that lands in. Many people choose to pay during Ramadan
because good deeds are especially rewarded then, and because the month is easy to remember. If your date comes earlier,
paying early rather than late is the safer course.
islamic termsZakat
islamic termsZakat-al-Fitr
Why Different Charities Show Different Figures
Compare two Zakat calculators on the same day and the numbers rarely match exactly. Three things cause that.
The weights used. Converting a dirham or a mithqal into grams depends on which historical estimate you accept. For gold, some use 85 grams and others 87.48 grams. For silver, some use 595 grams and others 612.36 grams. The gap is under three per cent, but it moves the final figure. HAF's calculator uses 87.48 grams of gold and 612.36 grams of silver.
Gold or silver. As above, this produces the largest difference by far.
The price and the moment. Metal prices move all day. Two calculators pulling from different price feeds, or updating at different times, will disagree slightly even when everything else matches.
None of this makes any of them wrong. It does mean a figure is only meaningful alongside the date it was taken and the standard it used. HAF's Zakat calculator holds the current figure.
Add up everything Zakat applies to and compare the total against the threshold. That is the step most often misunderstood. You do not need to own 87 grams of gold to owe Zakat on gold. Cash, savings, gold, silver, shares and business stock are added together, and the combined value is measured against the threshold. Someone with no gold at all can still pass it comfortably.
Debts you owe generally come off the total first, which can bring someone back below the line.
You check on your Zakat date, using the threshold as it stands that day. Checking in March and paying in September against a March figure will give the wrong answer.
There is a well-known difference about what happens in between. The Hanafi school holds that your wealth needs to be above the nisab at the start and the end of your Zakat year, and that dips during the year do not matter. The other schools hold that it must stay above throughout, so falling below at any point restarts the clock. In practice, most people following the Hanafi position find this simpler to track. For everything else about who pays and who may receive, see Zakat.
Three separate things decide what is owed, and they are easy to run together.
Nisab is the threshold: does the duty apply at all? Hawl is the timing: has a full lunar year passed with your wealth above that threshold? The rate is the amount: a fortieth, or 2.5%, of the qualifying total. All three must line up before a payment is due, and the rate never changes even though the threshold does.
Zakat al-Fitr, or Fitrana, works differently. The Hanafi school requires a person to hold the nisab in surplus wealth before it becomes due, though without the year-long waiting period. The other schools require only that a household has food to spare beyond its needs over Eid. Fitrana is therefore owed by many families who owe no Zakat at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is where the schools differ. Hanafi scholars look at the start and end of your Zakat year only, so a dip in the middle changes nothing. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools hold that wealth must remain above the threshold throughout, and that dropping below restarts the year. Follow the position of the school you belong to, or ask a scholar.
Your assets are added together and the total is compared against a single threshold, rather than each asset being tested on its own. Where someone holds a mixture, most contemporary scholars apply the silver threshold, since it is lower and more cautious. If HAF's stated policy differs, follow that consistently rather than switching between the two.
On the whole amount. The threshold decides whether Zakat is owed, not how much of your wealth it applies to. Someone slightly above the line pays a fortieth of their entire qualifying wealth, not a fortieth of the small amount by which they passed it.
The measure itself has never changed: it is still 200 dirhams of silver and 20 mithqal of gold. What changes is what those weights are worth in pounds, which moves daily with the metal markets. Any figure you see quoted is only accurate for the day it was published.
No. It falls due on your own zakat anniversary, whatever month that lands in. Many people choose to pay during Ramadan because good deeds are especially rewarded then, and because the month is easy to remember. If your date comes earlier, paying early rather than late is the safer course.
Zakat
Zakat-al-Fitr