What is the detail regarding the payment of zakah on dates when the varieties differ?
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The questioner : Your Eminence, may Allah preserve you, in a fatwa of yours here regarding the zakah of dates, when you were asked: "Does he not pay the zakah of each type from that type?" you said: "The well-known position of the Hanbali school is to pay the zakah of each type, even if that is difficult, and the correct view is: that with difficulty, one takes from the middle type if the types are equal. Here the matter is understood, but what is meant by your saying: 'Otherwise, one looks at the value and takes from one of the types according to the value'? What is meant by the value? What do we appraise?"
The Shaykh : The value of all the date palms.
The questioner : All the dates.
The Shaykh : All the dates, and it is said, for example: "The value of the middle type is such and such, and one takes from the value of the middle type."
The questioner : For example, suppose there are seventy kilos of sugar dates, five hundred kilos of a middle type, and one thousand kilos of a lower type.
The Shaykh : Fine.
The questioner : How do we appraise it now?
The Shaykh : We estimate, and what is the value? For example, if they say the sugar dates are half the value, the second is one-third of the value, and the third is one-sixth of the value, we add them together and pay out either half of one-tenth or one-tenth, according to what is obligatory.
The questioner : From the middle type.
The Shaykh : From the middle type. And if you wish something else, estimate the value generally. Estimate the value generally, then pay out from the value half of one-tenth or one-tenth. This is easy.
The questioner : From the entire value?
The Shaykh : From the entire value.
The questioner : Do we pay it out as value or as dates?
The Shaykh : No. If you want to pay it out as dates, then look at the middle type. But if you pay it out in currency, which is what we see as preferable in the present time, because people prefer currency to dates, then pay out from the currency. Yes.
The questioner : Your Eminence, the Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The Shaykh : The value of all the date palms.
The questioner : All the dates.
The Shaykh : All the dates, and it is said, for example: "The value of the middle type is such and such, and one takes from the value of the middle type."
The questioner : For example, suppose there are seventy kilos of sugar dates, five hundred kilos of a middle type, and one thousand kilos of a lower type.
The Shaykh : Fine.
The questioner : How do we appraise it now?
The Shaykh : We estimate, and what is the value? For example, if they say the sugar dates are half the value, the second is one-third of the value, and the third is one-sixth of the value, we add them together and pay out either half of one-tenth or one-tenth, according to what is obligatory.
The questioner : From the middle type.
The Shaykh : From the middle type. And if you wish something else, estimate the value generally. Estimate the value generally, then pay out from the value half of one-tenth or one-tenth. This is easy.
The questioner : From the entire value?
The Shaykh : From the entire value.
The questioner : Do we pay it out as value or as dates?
The Shaykh : No. If you want to pay it out as dates, then look at the middle type. But if you pay it out in currency, which is what we see as preferable in the present time, because people prefer currency to dates, then pay out from the currency. Yes.
The questioner : Your Eminence, the Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Yes.