Questioner: can someone whose annual salary is more than the nisab calculate the zakat payable at the beginning of the year and pay, considering he may not meet the nisab at the end of the year due to family expenses?
Ibn Taofeeq Abdul Azeez: So far he doesn’t meet it at the end of the year, then, he is not yet qualified to pay Zakat in that year, he should continue with sadaqah.
A condition among the conditions of eligibility is availability of the money for a complete year without a touch.
Meanwhile, it is good to view issues in a contemporary way, that is called FIQH.
To go further: in order for zakaat to be due on money, two conditions must be met;
1 – That it reaches the nisaab (minimum threshold)
2 – That one year has passed since it reaches the nisaab.
If the money is less than the nisaab, then no zakaat is due on it.
These two conditions are called شروط الوجوب(conditions of compulsion) and not شروط الصحة.
Also, If the money reaches the nisaab and it is ₦1.7 million for example, then at the end of the year it is 5 million, how should zakaat be paid?
That depends:
1 – If this extra amount stems directly from the original amount, such as if the million was invested, and earned ₦3.3 million, then you should pay zakaat on the entire amount at the end of the year, because the profit on money is connected to the capital.
2 – If this extra amount did not stem directly from the original amount, rather it is money that was acquired by different means, such as an inheritance or a gift, or it is the price of something that you sold, and so on, then a separate year should be counted for it, starting from the day when you took possession of this extra amount.
But if you want to pay its zakaat with the million, in advance, there is nothing wrong with that so far it won’t affect other obligations on you, like feeding of wives and children, school fees and so on. And this is not realistic for just ordinary person.
3: This extra amount may come gradually, such as money that a person saves from his salary, so he saves 500 000 one month, and 1million another month, until at the end of the year he has collected 5 million. So you have the choice of paying the whole amount when one year has passed for the million, in which case you will have paid zakat in advance for the money for which a year has not yet passed, or you can pay the zakat for each sum separately when its year has passed, but this entails some kind of hardship, as you will be paying zakaat several times in one year. So, it is not a ruling for all.