Zakat Payment in Advance in Shafii Madhab
Posted: 5 Zul-Qa’dah 1422, 19 January 2002
Dar al-‘Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah
Cape Town
South Africa
| Q.) I am a Shafii follower. In my country we have the scheme to pay zakat for our monthly salary (working with government). According to Shafii school of teaching, do we have to pay that type of zakat?
If we pay that zakat, do we still have to pay the zakat of our money (cash curency) after reaching its haul and nisab. [Norashid Aziz UK] |
A.) An adequate response to this question requires a more than cursory knowledge of the workings of the zakah scheme by the Malaysian government.
However, it might be mentioned as a matter of principle that the Shafi’i madhhab permits the payment of zakah before the time that it actually becomes wajib, i.e. before the conclusion of the year during which one has been in possession of the nisab, as long as it is executed during the course of that year.
In the case of a year which concludes on the 1st Ramadan, for example, one may give out the zakah at anytime during the 12 lunar months that precede that date, but not more than 12 months before it.
It would seem that the Malaysian goverment scheme works in this way: that it subtracts from the employee’s salary instalments towards the payment of his zakah of a particular year DURING the run of that year. If it is in fact so, this would be permissible in the Shafi’i madhhab, and the zakah thus paid will not have to be repaid upon the conclusion of the year. Wallahu Ta’ala A’lam