The Ruling on Delaying the Payment of Zakah

Question : The questioner asks: What is obligatory upon the one who delays paying part of the zakah of his wealth, not out of denial of it, but because he has not yet taken stock of what he has and determined the amount of the zakah, and this has happened for a year?

Answer : It is obligatory for a person to hasten to pay his zakah, because his zakah is like a debt upon him, and delaying the payment of a wealthy person is injustice. A person does not know what may happen; perhaps he will die and his zakah will remain in his wealth as a debt upon him after his death. So it is obligatory that he hasten to pay the zakah and not delay it. The fact that he delays it to take stock of the shop, for example, does not benefit him, because if he tries to take stock of the shop of everything, he will not be able to do so. So what I see is that it is obligatory for him now to hasten to deliver the zakah and not delay it. Yes.