regarding the zakah of a debt that is not due?
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The questioner : A debt that is not due, once the nisab is reached, this non-due debt is deducted from the nisab.
The Shaykh : I mean, did you lend me, for example, one thousand dinars?The questioner : No, sir, the opposite. I mean, for example, I calculate my zakah at the beginning of the Hijri year... but on that date, I have, for example, one thousand dinars, but I am in debt by seven thousand dinars. Part of the seven thousand dinars is due. How, for example? The seven thousand dinars... I owe two thousand or three thousand dinars, but I have them paid off in installments. In this case, if I pay them off by paying one hundred and fifty dinars each month, I have three years to settle them. Now, even though... this is due. The other case, or the other consideration, is that the three thousand dinars I am paying off now are due from previous years. And the third case is that this debt is on a delay. How? I took a loan from a group of my friends for the bathrooms, and so on. They did not say to me, "Pay it," but, for example, they left me alone for a week. But the reality of the matter... so, do I deduct from the nisab all this debt that is on me?
The Shaykh : The same question came recently from our brother Muhammad al-Khatib, and we were returning from the Fajr prayer. In fact, the question was precise, so I answered as follows: I gave him an example. I am in debt to a person named Zayd by one thousand, and this is my neighbor. I am in debt to him by one thousand. If I intend to repay this debt that is on me, then no zakah is due on me. But if I do not intend to, then zakah is due on me.
The questioner : During the lunar year, or regardless?
The Shaykh : No, I mean during the completion of the lunar year, of course. When the lunar year completes, it is obligatory for him to pay out the zakah. This hundred dinars that I am in debt to so-and-so, and as we say, you have heard this from me more than once: this debt is alive, not dead. So, this debt that is with so-and-so, I want to pay the zakah on it, correct?
The questioner : If it is alive.
The Shaykh : I am saying, I am still in debt to you by one hundred dinars. So, if I intend to repay it to you, then no zakah is due on it. But if the matter is the opposite of that.
The questioner : In my opinion, the debt might be paid within a year, or I might pay it, or I might not.
The Shaykh : Do you mean you want to repay it? You want to repay it, at least within that year, correct?
The questioner : I do not know. Let me give you a living example. I have debts of eight thousand five hundred dinars, and this is true. I look for money with the nisab. Whenever I have five hundred dinars, and each debt is around twenty thousand. With this simple equation, I am in debt and I do not have what to settle them.
The Shaykh : Sorry, you cannot settle anything?The questioner : When it becomes available to me, I will settle it.
The Shaykh : Sorry, in your question, you have, for example, four hundred dinars. Is this due, and has the lunar year passed on the four hundred dinars?
The questioner : No.
The Shaykh : So, if we assume the lunar year has passed, and you did not pay its zakah, and did not repay the debt, or part of the debt that is on you.
Another questioner: We exerted effort and said that since the lunar year does not complete on any specific amount by itself, what did we decide? We said, on a specific day, we determine, what money do you have... because when you take an amount, it is not the same as at the beginning of the year until the end of the year. We come and spend, and it goes...
The Shaykh : We, the issue has no relation to the picture that you... suppose a person is neither a creditor nor a debtor, and he has the nisab, which decreases and increases. As long as the lunar year has not passed on this amount of the nisab, no zakah is due on him. We return to your picture. You have this nisab, and the lunar year has passed on it, even though you have debts on your record. So, why did you not repay them?
The questioner : I repaid all my debts?
The Shaykh : Yes, because you did not repay the debt, this money that you have, you must pay its zakah, because this is called hoarding.
The questioner : I mean, the amount on which the lunar year passes, meaning this specific amount remains for three hundred twelve months, a lunar year. By the nature of our living and work, there is no amount of six hundred dinars or one thousand dinars from the beginning of the year to the end.
The Shaykh : I answered you on the question, my brother. I told you to separate this picture from the issue of creditor and debtor, correct or not?
The questioner : Yes
The Shaykh : Which is better, the complex picture that you present, or the picture that I am now dealing with? That I suppose that you or I am neither a creditor nor a debtor. I have this nisab. This nisab during the years did not remain as it was, but it decreased and increased, and half decreased and increased. In this, no zakah is due on it, because the lunar year has not passed on it. Is this clear?
The questioner : It is clear to me.
The Shaykh : So, the first and foremost in the picture that you are asking about. But I assumed that this nisab remained with you and the lunar year passed on it. So, the previous question came to me from you: since you are in debt to people, why did you not repay? Because you did not repay, and the lunar year passed on this money, it is obligatory to pay the zakah. Is this clear?
The questioner : It is clear.
Another questioner: We, only from the perspective that we all know this, that we said on a specific day, the money passes and comes out, we considered it... if Allah provides under our hands an amount that suffices the nisab, regardless of whether the lunar year passed or not, we consider it zakah.
The questioner : But what is happening is that you are not just the amount in your hands. You have a share in such-and-such company. Such-and-such company has cash and it has goods and it has so-and-so. You want to calculate what your share in such-and-such company is, how much of it is cash and how much is goods, and add it to the nisab.
Another questioner: There is only a share, if we consider it as trade goods.
The Shaykh : Is there no living debt for you with people?
The questioner : We have a dead debt of two hundred and fifty, that is it. As for companies, we do not have any, and praise be to Allah, we do not have except one company.
The Shaykh : So, Abu Muhammad's words are not applicable to you, but his words are applicable. We return, Adnan, to our picture, brother, our picture. That I do not have money, I do not have the nisab, but I have with this the nisab, and this requires from me the nisab. So, as long as the picture is as we mentioned earlier, that if I had the nisab, I would have paid the zakah, then I am not obligated in this picture. But in this picture, he has cash, meaning liquidity, except that the disagreement is whether the lunar year passed on it or not? If it did not pass, no zakah is due on it.
The questioner : So, what about the debt?
The Shaykh : If it is alive, zakah is due on it. Whether I am here a creditor, this comes out with zakah. But I must have the same debt, and I am not in a state of inability to repay. But if I am in a state of inability to repay, it comes out on me.
Another questioner: What does it mean, even if I am in debt in the second year, and I have one thousand dinars in cash, and the lunar year has passed on them, I pay on the one thousand dinars, even though I am in debt because I did not settle this debt?
The questioner : Or you settled the one thousand, you settled what is on you.
The Shaykh : This is the point of the fatwa. It is to help the debtor so that he clears his record, otherwise they attach zakah to him, as came in a hadith I remind you of, and in the way that we throw two birds with one stone, and it is a weak hadith. This first bird and the second bird are related to our research. Trade, work this money.
The Shaykh : I mean, did you lend me, for example, one thousand dinars?The questioner : No, sir, the opposite. I mean, for example, I calculate my zakah at the beginning of the Hijri year... but on that date, I have, for example, one thousand dinars, but I am in debt by seven thousand dinars. Part of the seven thousand dinars is due. How, for example? The seven thousand dinars... I owe two thousand or three thousand dinars, but I have them paid off in installments. In this case, if I pay them off by paying one hundred and fifty dinars each month, I have three years to settle them. Now, even though... this is due. The other case, or the other consideration, is that the three thousand dinars I am paying off now are due from previous years. And the third case is that this debt is on a delay. How? I took a loan from a group of my friends for the bathrooms, and so on. They did not say to me, "Pay it," but, for example, they left me alone for a week. But the reality of the matter... so, do I deduct from the nisab all this debt that is on me?
The Shaykh : The same question came recently from our brother Muhammad al-Khatib, and we were returning from the Fajr prayer. In fact, the question was precise, so I answered as follows: I gave him an example. I am in debt to a person named Zayd by one thousand, and this is my neighbor. I am in debt to him by one thousand. If I intend to repay this debt that is on me, then no zakah is due on me. But if I do not intend to, then zakah is due on me.
The questioner : During the lunar year, or regardless?
The Shaykh : No, I mean during the completion of the lunar year, of course. When the lunar year completes, it is obligatory for him to pay out the zakah. This hundred dinars that I am in debt to so-and-so, and as we say, you have heard this from me more than once: this debt is alive, not dead. So, this debt that is with so-and-so, I want to pay the zakah on it, correct?
The questioner : If it is alive.
The Shaykh : I am saying, I am still in debt to you by one hundred dinars. So, if I intend to repay it to you, then no zakah is due on it. But if the matter is the opposite of that.
The questioner : In my opinion, the debt might be paid within a year, or I might pay it, or I might not.
The Shaykh : Do you mean you want to repay it? You want to repay it, at least within that year, correct?
The questioner : I do not know. Let me give you a living example. I have debts of eight thousand five hundred dinars, and this is true. I look for money with the nisab. Whenever I have five hundred dinars, and each debt is around twenty thousand. With this simple equation, I am in debt and I do not have what to settle them.
The Shaykh : Sorry, you cannot settle anything?The questioner : When it becomes available to me, I will settle it.
The Shaykh : Sorry, in your question, you have, for example, four hundred dinars. Is this due, and has the lunar year passed on the four hundred dinars?
The questioner : No.
The Shaykh : So, if we assume the lunar year has passed, and you did not pay its zakah, and did not repay the debt, or part of the debt that is on you.
Another questioner: We exerted effort and said that since the lunar year does not complete on any specific amount by itself, what did we decide? We said, on a specific day, we determine, what money do you have... because when you take an amount, it is not the same as at the beginning of the year until the end of the year. We come and spend, and it goes...
The Shaykh : We, the issue has no relation to the picture that you... suppose a person is neither a creditor nor a debtor, and he has the nisab, which decreases and increases. As long as the lunar year has not passed on this amount of the nisab, no zakah is due on him. We return to your picture. You have this nisab, and the lunar year has passed on it, even though you have debts on your record. So, why did you not repay them?
The questioner : I repaid all my debts?
The Shaykh : Yes, because you did not repay the debt, this money that you have, you must pay its zakah, because this is called hoarding.
The questioner : I mean, the amount on which the lunar year passes, meaning this specific amount remains for three hundred twelve months, a lunar year. By the nature of our living and work, there is no amount of six hundred dinars or one thousand dinars from the beginning of the year to the end.
The Shaykh : I answered you on the question, my brother. I told you to separate this picture from the issue of creditor and debtor, correct or not?
The questioner : Yes
The Shaykh : Which is better, the complex picture that you present, or the picture that I am now dealing with? That I suppose that you or I am neither a creditor nor a debtor. I have this nisab. This nisab during the years did not remain as it was, but it decreased and increased, and half decreased and increased. In this, no zakah is due on it, because the lunar year has not passed on it. Is this clear?
The questioner : It is clear to me.
The Shaykh : So, the first and foremost in the picture that you are asking about. But I assumed that this nisab remained with you and the lunar year passed on it. So, the previous question came to me from you: since you are in debt to people, why did you not repay? Because you did not repay, and the lunar year passed on this money, it is obligatory to pay the zakah. Is this clear?
The questioner : It is clear.
Another questioner: We, only from the perspective that we all know this, that we said on a specific day, the money passes and comes out, we considered it... if Allah provides under our hands an amount that suffices the nisab, regardless of whether the lunar year passed or not, we consider it zakah.
The questioner : But what is happening is that you are not just the amount in your hands. You have a share in such-and-such company. Such-and-such company has cash and it has goods and it has so-and-so. You want to calculate what your share in such-and-such company is, how much of it is cash and how much is goods, and add it to the nisab.
Another questioner: There is only a share, if we consider it as trade goods.
The Shaykh : Is there no living debt for you with people?
The questioner : We have a dead debt of two hundred and fifty, that is it. As for companies, we do not have any, and praise be to Allah, we do not have except one company.
The Shaykh : So, Abu Muhammad's words are not applicable to you, but his words are applicable. We return, Adnan, to our picture, brother, our picture. That I do not have money, I do not have the nisab, but I have with this the nisab, and this requires from me the nisab. So, as long as the picture is as we mentioned earlier, that if I had the nisab, I would have paid the zakah, then I am not obligated in this picture. But in this picture, he has cash, meaning liquidity, except that the disagreement is whether the lunar year passed on it or not? If it did not pass, no zakah is due on it.
The questioner : So, what about the debt?
The Shaykh : If it is alive, zakah is due on it. Whether I am here a creditor, this comes out with zakah. But I must have the same debt, and I am not in a state of inability to repay. But if I am in a state of inability to repay, it comes out on me.
Another questioner: What does it mean, even if I am in debt in the second year, and I have one thousand dinars in cash, and the lunar year has passed on them, I pay on the one thousand dinars, even though I am in debt because I did not settle this debt?
The questioner : Or you settled the one thousand, you settled what is on you.
The Shaykh : This is the point of the fatwa. It is to help the debtor so that he clears his record, otherwise they attach zakah to him, as came in a hadith I remind you of, and in the way that we throw two birds with one stone, and it is a weak hadith. This first bird and the second bird are related to our research.