Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Is it obligatory for me to distribute my zakat to the all of the eight groups [s. of deserving recipients]? How do I calculate my zakat? I don’t see any easy way to calculate my zakat on my earnings over the year, it seems that the Hanafi way is much easier.
The reliable position in our school is that it is obligatory to distribute one’s zakat to each of the eight groups that are found in the country of the zakat-giver, and that one give zakat to at least three people in each group, if he has enough money. However, some great scholars have chosen to permit giving the zakat to only one person from one group, and this is a strong position which is permissible to follow, as the erudite scholar Ibn Hajar stated in his Fatawa, in the section on distributing charity.
As for wealth that is earned throughout the year, our school says that each and every new wealth that is introduced into one’s wealth must individually pass upon a whole lunar year, for example:
If a person owns $1000 on the first of Muharram, and it does reach nisab (minimum amount upon which zakat must be paid), he begins counting the zakat-year from that point. If then, say, one month later he earns $100, then a month later, he earns $200, then a month later he earns 150$ and this money is saved up until one lunar year passes over it, then this is how he pays his zakat: In the beginning of Muharram of the next year, he must pay zakat on 1000$ only, which is 25$. Then a month later, he must pay zakat on 100$, if he still has it saved up, which is 2.50$, and a month later, he must pay zakat on the 200$, if he still has it saved up, which is $5, and finally a month later, he must pay zakat on the 150$, if he still has it saved up, which is 3.75$, and so forth.
It is permissible for one to pay the zakat for money earned duringthe zakat year early along with the money which has completely undergone azakat-year. So, instead of calculating an independent zakat-year for the earnings [h. acquired during the zakat-year], as done in the previous example, he gives his zakat (on the new wealth) with the zakat that he is currently paying for the amount that he possessed for a zakat-year. However, there are conditions when paying zakat early, among them is: that the zakat-recipient still be a zakat-recipient by the end of the year. So if one gives their zakat early, and gives it to a deserving recipient early, then at the end of the year, that zakat-recipient is no longer a deserving recipient because he became rich or died, for example, the zakat-giver has still not given his zakat, and he must give zakat anew. If the zakat-giver does not know the financial situation of the recipient to whom he gave his zakat early, after the year is completed, the relied-upon position is that it is sufficient, and having doubts doesn’t affect [s. the validity of his zakat].
It is permissible for the questioner to follow the Hanafi school in this matter, but he must be certain that he know the details of their school from a Hanafi scholar, for this is necessary when following another school (taqlid).