The Ruling on the Zakah of Checks and Documents

The questioner : Documents, and what are documents? Checks, meaning promissory notes, is there zakah on them or not?

The Shaykh : We say that these are actually similar to hawalah (transfer of debt). Hawalah is when you transfer a debtor to a person who will take his right from you. For example, if I am owed one thousand riyals by this man, and you are owed one thousand riyals by me, I write you a letter saying, "I have transferred to you the one thousand riyals that I owe you, and I have made you responsible for the one thousand riyals that are with so-and-so." Documents are exactly like this, because if a man writes a check to so-and-so, what does that mean? He is encumbering the debt that is upon him, from the balance that he has in this bank or this institution. So, is it obligatory for the one holding the check? Is zakah obligatory on the check or not?

The questioner : I am your brother.

The Shaykh : Is zakah obligatory on the check or not? Suppose a person has, for example, ten checks, each for one hundred thousand. Is zakah obligatory on him or not? Zakah is obligatory on him, because these documents are established in the status of documents written in a court, for example. They are established, so zakah is obligatory on them. And Allah knows best. We mentioned that they are in the status of documents and transfers, and that there is zakah on them because they are a document for a debt. A person who has a debt owed to him by someone has zakah on it. And if you wish, we can look into the topic of the zakah of debts.