Appraising Livestock
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has reviewed the matter sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufti from His Excellency the Director of the Department of Endowments, Mosques, and Guidance and Awareness in al-Harrah Province , reference number (558/19/42/ض), dated 2/9/1426 AH, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars with reference number (3090), dated 23/9/1426 AH. His Excellency asked a question, the text of which is as follows: I request from Your Eminence a ruling and guidance regarding a phenomenon that occurs regularly during the zakat on camels . It is not hidden from Your Eminence that the prices of camels have risen in this time, with some reaching hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of riyals. Some camel owners have this type of camel, which they feed in their enclosures for the full lunar year and do not release to pasture. However, when the zakat collection workers come, they assess these camels as grazing camels (saimah) rather than as trade goods (‘urud al-tijarah), even though the owner has made them a trade and capital, and they are not among the grazing camels that pasture for a year or more. His intention in doing so is that the zakat on grazing camels is much lighter for him in this case. For example, if he has ten camels, each valued at one hundred thousand riyals (100,000)
then the total is one million riyals, and the zakat as trade goods is twenty-five thousand riyals. But if he assesses them as grazing camels, the zakat is two sheep, which do not exceed a value of eight hundred riyals (800). The question is: Is this practice valid, and is the conscience cleared by it? It is known that some do this to evade the ruling, while others do it out of ignorance of the ruling. What is obligatory for the zakat collection workers regarding this?
After studying the inquiry, the Committee responded that if livestock, including camels, are owned by their owner with the intention of trade, by buying and selling them for profit, then the zakat on trade goods is obligatory on them, amounting to (2.5%) of their value at the time the zakat becomes due, which is the completion of the lunar year on the capital for which they were purchased. It is not permissible to evade this by making their zakat the zakat on grazing camels in order to reduce the zakat, and the conscience of one who evades the obligatory zakat is not cleared. The zakat workers must verify this by asking the camel owner about his purpose for them, whether it is trade or otherwise, and the scholars, including preachers and others, must clarify this to the people.
then the total is one million riyals, and the zakat as trade goods is twenty-five thousand riyals. But if he assesses them as grazing camels, the zakat is two sheep, which do not exceed a value of eight hundred riyals (800). The question is: Is this practice valid, and is the conscience cleared by it? It is known that some do this to evade the ruling, while others do it out of ignorance of the ruling. What is obligatory for the zakat collection workers regarding this?
After studying the inquiry, the Committee responded that if livestock, including camels, are owned by their owner with the intention of trade, by buying and selling them for profit, then the zakat on trade goods is obligatory on them, amounting to (2.5%) of their value at the time the zakat becomes due, which is the completion of the lunar year on the capital for which they were purchased. It is not permissible to evade this by making their zakat the zakat on grazing camels in order to reduce the zakat, and the conscience of one who evades the obligatory zakat is not cleared. The zakat workers must verify this by asking the camel owner about his purpose for them, whether it is trade or otherwise, and the scholars, including preachers and others, must clarify this to the people.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.