Q: Recently my husband and I received a lot of money as gifts for our wedding. My zakaat due date is coming up soon. Since the money was given to both, me and my husband, do I need to take into consideration all of it or half of it when calculating my zakaat?
Q: I have about 25 tola gold۔ I want to know the zakaat in rupees.
Q: I'm an 18 old boy and I'm dependent on my parents for money. But I get a good amount of money monthly. Whenever I see poor people on the road, I give them money. Recently my friend said that its not permissible to give money as sadaqah when you are not earning money by yourself. Can you please help me with this.
Q: If a pension is released to an employee at the time of retirement and according to statutory law you can only cash in 1/3 of it, while the remaining 2/3 has to be re-invested in a similar fund (money never coming into your hands of the retiree) directly being re-invested on behalf of the retiree to receive a monthly pension from the investment. What are the zakaat implications on the following:
1. Is zakaat payable on the 1/3, if the retiree opt to take the 1/3?
2. Is zakaat payable on the 1/3 if the retiree opt NOT to take the 1/3?
3. Is zakaat payable on the remaining portion of the reinvested amount?
4. Is zakaat payable on the monthly income derived from the re-invested amount?
Q: I have query on zakaat for land plots. I live overseas. I don’t own any home in my home country nor overseas. I have a total 9 plots in my home country as per below. Currently, I do not have any intention to sell these plots, unless until in future if I need cash/funds for my kids (a son and a daughter) higher education, marriage, home construction or any emergency. Kindly advise if zakaat is payable on any of these plots (and what percent is payable).
Plot #1 & 2: These are two residential plots. We plan that whenever we go back to our home country, we will construct our home on these two plots.
Plot #3: I have intention to build a home on this and gift it to my daughter on her marriage.
Plot #4 & 5: If I have finance available in future, I will construct homes and will put these for rental income (my retirement income plan). Or if my sister wants to live in one of them, she can take one.
Plot #6 & 7: There are two options in my mind:
(a) To buy land (and construct a home) near my parents in law home (this area is expensive). So I may sell these two plots (6&7) in order to purchase a new land near my parents in law place. If I go for this option, I will not construct a home on the above said plot 1&2. However, possibility of this option (a) is low, as it requires a lot more financing.
(b) If I have finance available in future, I will construct homes and will put these properties for rental income (my retirement income plan).
Plot #8 & 9: A residential and a commercial plot. It is currently new city development in progress and it is expected to be future business hub in next 1 or 2 decades. So in case, if I or my son in future need to move/live in this new city (for job/business purposes), so we can use these plots for ourselves living/business.
Q: I work in Saudi Arabia. I purchased one plot in India in 2011 with the intention of constructing a house or selling it later. Another plot I purchased in 2015 with the intention to build a house. Till now I did not start construction on any one of these two plots. Do I have to pay zakaat for these two plots?
Q: There are most of our relative women whose husbands don’t fall in the catogray of taking zakat, but they don’t care about these women in terms of their daily needs, continually working them in fields and if they became ill, they don’t take them to hospital. Because of illness, few died and others are suffering. Is it allowed if I support them with zakat.
Q: My family has recently started giving food parcels to the less fortunate. It has gradually grown by numbers and is now once a week that a little over 100 food takeaway containers are given at 1 venue (more kids) and on another day, at a different venue, around 400 food packets are distributed. Majority of the people are non-Muslim and it was our intention to distribute to this particular group in the hope that this act alone would encourage or display the deen to these people and any others who might see. We are not well known in the area so hopefully by us doing it in a visible spot, not in everyone’s eye, but still visible to passer by’s.
Our intention is that this act should be sincerely for the pleasure of Allah and seeking nothing more than the reward and hopefully, Insha Allah, the correct message will be portrayed in hope of it being a means of Allah giving any of them hidayat. Our fear is that we do not want to lose the reward because of it becoming known by people we know, or even our weak hearts looking for anything more then the pleasure of our Creator. We try our utmost to never speak about it so as not to transgress, what the right hand does, the left hand should not know!
We need help and advice and we don’t know who to ask but at the risk of it becoming a thing of show or more importantly at the risk of losing the reward, hopefully we can be assisted here. We sincerely believe that there is a grand opportunity for us to pass the message of Deen on to these people and make it more of an Islamic drive so that we can maximize the opportunity and spread the word of Islam through this opportunity. How do we do it without involving the local ulama?
What else can we do to use this opportunity for dawah? We considered including literature in the parcels but fear that if Allahs name is mentioned in the literature and they just discard it, then that would also be sinful.
Q: I have a retirement annuity. Do I discharge Zakaat on the capital amount or do I discharge on the maturity amount?
Q: A maid (widow) is in dire need to buy a small room. She sells her only possession (gold worth one lakh rupees) for this purpose and hands over this amount to the middleman. The middleman is responsible for giving this one lakh to the actual owner of the room who is in another city. The owner will arrive after a month to receive payment. Is this lady eligible for zakaat after handing over the money to the middleman or will she be eligible when the money will be transferred to the actual owner after one month?