And I want to ask: Am I required to pay zakah on these funds that have been with me for more than seven years, in the varying amounts I mentioned?
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The questioner : The listener, Jadd Allah Abdul Aziz Al-Otaif from Hail, sent a long message, actually, in beautiful and clear handwriting. The summary is that he is an employee at a company and applies its savings system, meaning that each month he sets aside the amount he wishes to save, provided it is not less than eight hundred riyals from his monthly salary. Sometimes he saves eight hundred riyals, and sometimes more than this amount in varying monthly sums, sometimes one thousand riyals, sometimes one thousand and two hundred riyals, and sometimes nine hundred riyals. He says, “O honorable Shaykh, I have been applying this system for about seven years, without interest, praise be to Allah, and I do not know the amount in my balance since I started working at this company until now. I want to ask you, O honorable Shaykh, am I required to pay zakah on these funds that have been with me for more than seven years, in the varying amounts I mentioned to you at the top of the message? Please note that I need this money when the company hands it over to me upon my departure from the company. If zakah is obligatory on me, what is the Sharia-compliant method that can clear my conscience of this, given that I did not record the money I paid monthly? Please inform us, may Allah reward you with knowledge and service to the Muslims?”
The Shaykh : Yes, there is zakah on these funds that you saved with the company and kept as a deposit that you can withdraw whenever you wish, because these are in the same position as money in your safe that you can take and benefit from whenever you wish. You must calculate what you save each year in order to pay its zakah. If you saved, for example, eight thousand riyals in the first year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah. If you saved, for example, eight thousand riyals in the second year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah and the zakah of the first year as well, because zakah recurs every year. If you saved the same amount in the third year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah and the zakah of the previous eight hundred riyals from the first two years as well.
The important thing is that you must calculate these sums that you saved and pay their zakah for each year.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.
The Shaykh : Yes, there is zakah on these funds that you saved with the company and kept as a deposit that you can withdraw whenever you wish, because these are in the same position as money in your safe that you can take and benefit from whenever you wish. You must calculate what you save each year in order to pay its zakah. If you saved, for example, eight thousand riyals in the first year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah. If you saved, for example, eight thousand riyals in the second year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah and the zakah of the first year as well, because zakah recurs every year. If you saved the same amount in the third year and a lunar year passed over it, you pay its zakah and the zakah of the previous eight hundred riyals from the first two years as well.
The important thing is that you must calculate these sums that you saved and pay their zakah for each year.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.