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Fatwa CenterIs it allowed for a mother to distribute her gold that is above the zakat threshold (nisaab) among her children as a way to avoid paying zakat?
Question
Assalamu AlykumMy mother has gold above the zakaat threshold(nisaab) now can she distribute the gold between her children ? Children are above 20 and either student or working.This way mother need not to pay the zakaat as gold will become less then nissab.Is it permissible to distribute gold between the children to avoid zakaat as mother/family has no constant income, we need to sell gold to pay the zakaat.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
If the gold your mother possesses is jewelry that she wears, jurists have two different opinions concerning the obligation of Zakah in this case and the legal opinion stated on the website is that Zakah is not obligatory.
If the gold your mother has is not intended for adornment, then it is obligatory to pay Zakah on it if the gold reaches Nisab (the minimum amount of gold that a Muslim must possess in order to be eligible to pay Zakah) and one lunar year has passed since it reached the Nisab. If your mother wishes to donate it before the due time of Zakah in order not to pay it, then she should not donate it, because this is a trick to escape from one of Allah’s obligations. Having no cash money to pay Zakah does not justify resorting to tricky methods to escape from paying Zakah. Making use of tricky methods is not among the characteristics of believers. Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar stated in Fat’h Al-Bari on the authority of Muhammad ibn Al-Hasan that believers are not characterized by escaping from Allah’s rulings using tricky methods that lead to invalidating a right. [End quote]
Imam Ash-Shatibi in his book entitled “Al-I`tisam” gave as an example of the trick intended to invalidate a legal ruling the donation of a Zakatable item in order to escape from paying Zakah on it, saying: “The well-known truth in this regard is to do an apparently permissible act in order to invalidate a legal ruling and turn it apparently into another ruling. This act will lead, in fact, to breaking the rules of Sharee’ah. For example, if a person donates some of his wealth at the beginning of the Hawl (lunar year and the length of time that an individual must possess the wealth that they will pay Zakah on) to escape from paying Zakah on it, the donation is considered permissible in principle. However, if the person does not pay Zakah without donation, this shall be impermissible. In fact, each act (donation or escaping from paying Zakah) is clear in either bringing benefit or causing harm; so if both acts are combined to fulfill this intention, donation will result in non-payment of Zakah, which is an evil act. This applies on the condition that one intends to invalidate the legal rulings.” [End quote]
Jurists have different opinions concerning whether the person who donates his wealth in order to escape from paying the due Zakah is obliged to pay Zakah or not. Al-Mardawi Al-Hanbali stated in his book “Al-Insaf”: “The correct opinion in our School of Jurisprudence is that if the intention of selling, donating, destroying or the like is to escape from paying Zakah, Zakah shall not be waived. This opinion is held by the majority of Hanbali scholars. Some of them considered it to be the only correct opinion. However, Abu Ya`la As-Saghir (from the Hanbali School of Jurisprudence) stated in his book “Al-Mufradat” on the authority of some Hanbali scholars: ‘Zakah shall be waived if one makes use of tricky methods in accordance to Abu Hanifah and Ash-Shafi`i, in the same way it is waived after the passage of the first Hawl (because Zakah is related to the Zakatable wealth itself and the Nisab after the passage of the first Hawl is diminished by the sum of the paid Zakah and subsequently the Nisab becomes incomplete and Zakah is waived).’ I said: ‘The rules and fundamentals of the Hanbali School of Jurisprudence disagree with this opinion.’” [End quote]
Allah knows best.
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