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Zakaat on vouchers, cheques, etc

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Muftionline.co.za

Q: Must Zakaat be paid on the following?

(1) Store gift vouchers and meal vouchers that are not redeemable for cash. These gift and meal vouchers can only be used for purchasing items from a specific store.

(2) A credit that one has with a store. For example, a person gives R1000 in cash to a shop at the start of the year. When he shops there during the year, he does not produce cash, but rather whatever he purchases is deducted from that R1000.

(3) Discount vouchers that say something like: “R25 off Soap”, “R50 off laptop” etc. These discount vouchers themselves are not redeemable for cash.

(4) Undeposited bank cheques.

(5) Many online freelancing job platforms only allow a person to withdraw money from the system into ones personal bank account after they have earned a certain amount. So if one has earned R200 so far, he can only withdraw that into his bank account when he has earned R500. Must Zakaat be paid on this R200?

Bismillaah

A:

1. As a precaution zakaat is payable on these vouchers.

2. Zakaat is payable on that wealth.

3. Zakaat is not payable on discount vouchers as it is not money in itself but only a promise from the side of the seller to give the purchaser a gift for the value of the voucher. As far as the gift voucher and the meal voucher (mentioned in question one) is concerned, then zakaat is payable on them since they represent a debt owed to the voucher holder by the store.

4. Zakaat is payable on these cheques.

5. If the money is in exchange of some service carried out, then zakaat is not payable until he receives it.

And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

( و ) اعلم أن الديون عند الإمام ثلاثة قوي ومتوسط وضعيف (فتجب ) زكاتها إذا تم نصابا وحال الحول لكن لا فورا بل ( عند قبض أربعين درهما من الدين ) القوي كقرض ( وبدل مال تجارة ) فكلما قبض أربعين درهما يلزمه درهم ( و ) عند قبض ( مائتين منه لغيرها ) أي من بدل مال لغير تجارة وهو المتوسط كثمن سائمة وعبيد خدمة ونحوهما مما هو مشغول بحوائجه الأصلية كطعام وشراب وأملاك ويعتبر ما مضى من الحول قبل القبض في الأصح ومثله ما لو ورث دينا على رجل ( و ) عند قبض ( مائتين مع حولان الحول بعده ) أي بعد القبض ( من ) دين ضعيف وهو ( بدل غير مال ) كمهر ودية وبدل كتابة وخلع

قوله ( في الأصح ) قد علمت أنه ظاهر الرواية وعبارة الفتح و البحر في صحيح الرواية  قلت لكن قال في البدائع إن رواية ابن سماعة أنه لا زكاة فيه حتى يقبض المائتين ويحول الحول من وقت القبض هي الأصح من الروايتين عن أبي حنيفة اهـ  ومثله في غاية البيان وعليه فحكمه حكم الدين الضعيف الآتي (رد المختار 2/ 305)

( وسبب لزوم أدائها توجه الخطاب ) يعني قوله تعالى { وآتوا الزكاة } وشرطه أي شرط افتراض أدائها ( حولان الحول ) وهو في ملكه ( وثمنية المال كالدراهم والدنانير ) لتعينهما للتجارة بأصل الخلقة فتلزم الزكاة كيفما أمسكهما ولو للنفقة ( أو السوم ) بقيدها الآتي ( أو نية التجارة ) في العروض إما صريحا ولا بد من مقارنتها لعقد التجارة كما سيجيء أو دلالة بأن يشتري عينا بعرض التجارة أو يؤاجر داره التي للتجارة بعرض فتصير للتجارة بلا نية صريحا واستثنوا من اشتراط النية ما يشتريه المضارب فإنه يكون للتجارة مطلقا (الدر المختار 2/ 267)

Answered by:

Mufti Zakaria Makada

Checked & Approved:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)


Q: Please advise regarding my previous question on store vouchers:

Question 1 refers.

“Earn credit by referring your friends to shop on [online store]. Simply invite friends to sign-up via email and you will earn R100 store credit when
each one spends R200 or more for the first time.”

Here, a person earns R100 store credit if his invitee spends R200 or more for the first time. The online store in question does not inform the inviter what item/s his invitee has purchased. He therefore cannot find out whether the item/s were halaal or haraam.

(3) In this case, where he cannot know whether the item/s was halaal or haraam, would the store credit he receives be halaal? The R100 store credit
commission he receives is fixed and not based on the actual cost of the possibly haraam item/s sold, just that it must be greater than R200. For example, if a R5000 TV were to be purchased, he would receive just R100 store credit since the TV is greater than R200. He has no way of knowing a TV was purchased.

(4) In another set-up, he is also not informed by the store what item/s were sold i.e. whether they were halaal or haraam. However, his commission payout is based according to a determined and acceptable percentage of the sold item/s. For example, if a R5000 TV were to be purchased, he would receive 12% of R5000 in store credit. He has no way of knowing a TV was purchased. Is this permissible?

Bismillaah

A: It is permissible.

And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

Answered by:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)

This answer was collected from MuftiOnline.co.za, where the questions have been answered by Mufti Zakaria Makada (Hafizahullah), who is currently a senior lecturer in the science of Hadith and Fiqh at Madrasah Ta’leemuddeen, Isipingo Beach, South Africa.

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