# Should the zakat threshold be different in each country?

*Should the zakat threshold differ by country? The nisab and early zakat*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/15/
- Date: 2020-08-24 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #179 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (49:56–58:11)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmtt2TQAO0&t=2996s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/

**Topics:** Zakat and charity; Authenticating hadith

**Question as asked:** Regarding zakat, there is a specific amount until you are obligated to pay, but shouldn't it be a different amount in every country?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says regional thresholds make sense to him, since the nisab rests on weak hadith and the detailed zakat system was largely built by later scholars.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says there is no real sahih hadith on the nisab of zakat, all the reports being weak.

**Evidence, his words at 52:22:** “you'll be surprised that there is no real sahih hadith to do with any of this stuff um it in fact all the hadith are weak but the scholars just accepted it” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmtt2TQAO0&t=3142s)

## Longer summary

A superchat suggests that the threshold for zakat should be a different amount in every country. Mufti Abu Layth says he had not thought of it that way and explains that the monetary laws of zakat were not laid out clearly, because the Arabs traded mostly in livestock, hence the many reports on camels, sheep and cows. He says the nisab of 20 dinars or 200 dirhams, the dinar from the Roman denarius and the dirham from the Sasanian drachma, rests on no real sahih hadith; all the reports are weak, but the scholars accepted them because a system was needed. He says the pure Quranic reading makes it hard to distinguish zakat from charity, while insisting he is not denying zakat, and that the Prophet received zakat for less than a year, from perhaps 40 or 50 percent of Arabia. Fully developed systems came about 150 years later and were largely man-made, so he says regional adjustment makes sense to him.

## Sources and names cited

- zakat
- nisab
- dinar
- dirham
- sadaqah
- Abu Bakr [?]

## Transcript (machine tier, 49:56–58:11)

[49:21] will you invite mahareen bake to your podcast mahareen bake is that the uh one from that muslim show the queen marine is that her or is this a different one yeah who's a teacher or something sure i mean i'm not quite sure what she does now and what we chat about but message me let me know what she's up to and yeah why not you can ask her

[49:56] right so super chat otherwise i want my my super chat a new with my super chat i can't see my super chat oh there it is rock black says mufti regarding zakat there is a specific amount you until you are obligated to pay the card but shouldn't it be on every country a different amount um

[50:33] that's interesting never really thought about it like that i suppose you could okay look i'm gonna share something with you right you know zakat in all honesty the laws of zakat especially when it comes to money the monetary side of things they weren't really laid out so clearly in islam because the arabs although they had obviously gold and silver but they heavily traded with livestock

[51:10] and with uh they bartered now gold and silver were not their main commodities so where you have a lot of teachings about you know in every five camels you give one sheep and you do this and for this many cows one can give this or these kind of a hadith that you will you will find

[51:44] the you don't really the hadith to do with things like how much nissab what is the the kind of the trigger amount the kind of the the uh the trigger switch for zakat so once your savings reach a certain amount it is triggered as the cut now becomes applicable so people will say you know 20 dinars which was 200 dirhams because in the prophet's time a dinar is a gold piece and it comes from the roman dinari or daenerys and dirham was a silver piece and

[52:22] ten silver pieces equated to one golden piece so and the dirham comes from the persian sassanids drachma because they were more in they kind of had more of the silver thing so now this this teaching that oh in 200 dirhams or in 20 dinars your zakat starts you know the nisab starts and so on you'll be surprised that there is no real sahih hadith to do with any of this stuff um it in fact all the hadith are weak but the scholars just accepted it

[53:01] because they needed a system and it was better than nothing because otherwise they would be totally inventing it so one could argue they you know somebody may have even invented that because it's a weaker these but it's just a system that was needed so yeah otherwise it seems to be that although zakat obviously is important about giving it's difficult sometimes from the pure quranic literature sorry the pure quranic

[53:39] reading it's difficult clearly discerning zakat from charity just giving in charity it's difficult because even the verse of the quran is the verse used what that people say this is where zakat is given and it's it seems to because zakat means a purification so what you definitely see in the prophet's time there is this understanding of an of obligated charity giving in charity

[54:19] but the specificities are still slightly vague in some things they're not that clear and certain people are giving zakat um but is everybody giving it in the prophet's lifetime it definitely doesn't seem so um later on it solidifies so in a wakka radilla who's time it definitely becomes the you know the livestock and all of this definitely becomes a thing that everybody is now mandated to give and then within the generations that come the money thing becomes a thing because more money

[54:58] appears people start it becomes a more important commodity but it didn't really there's no sahih hadith for so it's interesting to know that but i agree with you that these things should be con region like they should be relevant to your own region yes so somebody says give zakat it's mandatory no of course it is but what i'm trying to say is at some level of reading in the quran it's difficult discerning like delineating demarcating

[55:35] like drawing a line between charity and zakat like is it just one and are they the same thing does it just mean giving charity now i know the general understanding is it doesn't and i'm not saying it does mean just giving charity i'm not saying that there is this thing of zakat i'm not denying zakat i am saying it is there but to be fair in all fairness if we're just being fair in the quran the quranic reading of it's it's difficult discerning are they the same it's not that clear

[56:14] and in the prophet's lifetime itself because zakat is only one year before the prophet passes so in that year how many things were established for zakat you know you think about it it's it's the prophet only receives zakat one year that's it and then in fact within so many months it's not even a full year within so many months he passes away so how many rules of zakat were established and how many people were paying zakat to the prophet definitely definitely not all of them i would argue maybe you know out of the whole of the arabian

[56:54] peninsula i would assume maybe about 40 percent were paying something like that they weren't i would assume that the majority of arabia was not paying um but or maybe 50 50 percent was but it becomes difficult again distinguishing between what they were giving as gifts and the cut because so yeah it's a complicated topic really but yet okay that's the raw material then you've got you fast forward a couple of generations um like let's say 150 years uh after the profit and you've got set systems in place okay with this you know

[57:33] this is going to be like this you've got camels you've got wheat we're going to do it like this we're going to do this we're going to take it from here we're going to do that if you've got gold we're going to do this this is what triggers the circuit there's complete systems in place fully developed systems i'm not saying the systems are problematic i'm just saying we must remember that a lot a lot of these systematization part is really man-made it's just done by scholars to set a system because not having a system meant they couldn't control things whereas if you have a system you know exactly what to ask and you know exactly what to record

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment KWmtt2TQAO0/s/15. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/15/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.