Is there zakah due on livestock that its owner feeds, whether it is few or many?
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The questioner : Is there zakah due on livestock that its owner feeds, whether it is few or many? Please inform us of this?
The Shaykh : Yes. Livestock that its owner feeds is either for trade or for breeding. If it is for trade, then zakah is due on it. If it is fed, and the livestock for trade is that which its owner buys to make a profit from it, buying it at the beginning of the day and selling it at the end of the day, and if he makes a profit from it, then this livestock is in his possession like cloth is for a cloth merchant, like gold is for a gold merchant, and like real estate is for real estate merchants. He does not want to keep it; he wants the profit. So whenever the profit is realized, he removes it from his ownership. This type has zakah due on it in all cases, whether few or many, even if he has only one camel that reaches the nisab. That is, the nisab of silver. It is obligatory for him to pay zakah on it. For example, if he has one camel worth five hundred riyals, it is obligatory for him to pay zakah on it, and it is just one camel. However, if the livestock he has is not for trade, but rather for breeding and utilizing for milk and offspring, then there is no zakah on it as long as he feeds it for most of the year or the entire year. This is because the hadiths regarding livestock qualify this with "saimah" (grazing livestock). Saimah is that which grazes for the whole year or most of it. As for that which is fed for the whole year or most of it, there is no zakah on it unless it is for trade. Yes.
The questioner : Good, may Allah reward you, O honorable Shaykh.
This is a message received from a listener of the program. The listener actually did not mention his name, and he has a set of questions. He says:
The Shaykh : Yes. Livestock that its owner feeds is either for trade or for breeding. If it is for trade, then zakah is due on it. If it is fed, and the livestock for trade is that which its owner buys to make a profit from it, buying it at the beginning of the day and selling it at the end of the day, and if he makes a profit from it, then this livestock is in his possession like cloth is for a cloth merchant, like gold is for a gold merchant, and like real estate is for real estate merchants. He does not want to keep it; he wants the profit. So whenever the profit is realized, he removes it from his ownership. This type has zakah due on it in all cases, whether few or many, even if he has only one camel that reaches the nisab. That is, the nisab of silver. It is obligatory for him to pay zakah on it. For example, if he has one camel worth five hundred riyals, it is obligatory for him to pay zakah on it, and it is just one camel. However, if the livestock he has is not for trade, but rather for breeding and utilizing for milk and offspring, then there is no zakah on it as long as he feeds it for most of the year or the entire year. This is because the hadiths regarding livestock qualify this with "saimah" (grazing livestock). Saimah is that which grazes for the whole year or most of it. As for that which is fed for the whole year or most of it, there is no zakah on it unless it is for trade. Yes.
The questioner : Good, may Allah reward you, O honorable Shaykh.
This is a message received from a listener of the program. The listener actually did not mention his name, and he has a set of questions. He says: