The ruling on the zakah of land that one is undecided about selling

The questioner : The questioner says: A man has some land, and he is hesitating between selling it and keeping it. Does it count as trade goods, making zakah obligatory on it, or what is the ruling?

The Shaykh : A man has land, and he is hesitating between selling it and keeping it. We say there is no zakah on him. The default ruling for all trade goods, except for gold and silver, is that there is no zakah. As long as he has not decided that it is for trade, there is no zakah on him. Accordingly, if the government grants a piece of land to a man and he owns it without the intention of trading, intending to build a house for himself, or to build it to rent it out, or something similar, there is no zakah on him. But if he decides to sell it, meaning he wants to get rid of it and sell it, is there zakah on him? No, there is no zakah on him unless he sells it and receives the price. It is the price that has zakah in it, whereas there is no zakah on the land itself.