The Village Imam's Zakat Ledger
A village imam in a rural district collects zakat on behalf of about forty households. This year he receives: 250 kg of rice, 60 kg of dates, a young cow (about one year old), a two-year-old cow, and PKR 480,000 in cash from a single donor whose savings have been above the nisab threshold for a full lunar year. He also receives a gold bracelet from a widow who says it was her only ornament, and a pledge of PKR 100,000 to be paid next month. The imam wants to distribute everything before Ramadan ends. He has eight eligible recipients: three orphans, two disabled adults, one stranded traveler, one heavily indebted family, and one poor student. He is unsure which items can be combined for nisab, whether the young cow suffices, and whether the widow's bracelet should be returned. He also wonders whether the pledged money can be counted now.
1. Assess the zakatability of each item and determine whether the young cow and the two-year-old cow meet the livestock threshold. Explain your reasoning.
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Cash (PKR 480,000): Zakatable at 2.5% = PKR 12,000, because the donor's wealth stayed above nisab for a full lunar year. This is the cleanest item.
Rice and dates (250 kg + 60 kg): Agricultural produce is zakatable when it is a staple that is stored and measured, and the rate is generally a tenth (ushr) or a twentieth (kharaj land) on the harvest, not 2.5%. The imam should treat these as ushr produce, not as trade goods, unless they were held for sale, in which case they become trade inventory ('urud) valued at market price and added to cash for the trade-goods nisab.
Livestock: Cattle have a minimum threshold (nisab) of 30 head. With only two cows, no livestock zakat is due at all. The ages of the animals are therefore irrelevant here; the young cow versus two-year-old question would only matter once the herd reaches 30 (a one-year-old enters at 30, a two-year-old at 40). So the imam should not take either cow as zakat; if the donors intended sadaqah, he may accept it as voluntary charity.
Gold bracelet: Gold is zakatable if it reaches the nisab (about 87.48 g) and is held for a year, but scholars differ on ornaments in regular use. Given the widow's statement that it is her only ornament, the safer and more compassionate course is to return it and not pressure her; zakat is not meant to strip a person of basic personal use items.
Pledged PKR 100,000: A promise is not wealth in hand. Zakat follows actual ownership after a full lunar year, so the pledge cannot be counted now. If paid later and the recipient is still eligible, it can be distributed then.
2. Distribute the zakatable amount among the eight recipients and explain the fiqh principle governing the division.
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First compute the pool: PKR 12,000 from cash, plus the value of the ushr produce if treated as ushr (often paid in kind). The imam should not mix trade-goods valuation with ushr casually; the simplest defensible approach is to pay the 2.5% cash zakat of PKR 12,000 to the eight eligible recipients and handle the produce separately as ushr.
Division: The Quran lists eight categories (9:60). The imam is not obliged to give to all eight; he may give to some, but he must ensure the recipients are genuinely eligible. The stranded traveler qualifies even if wealthy at home, because need arises from the journey. The heavily indebted family qualifies if the debt is not for something sinful and they cannot repay. The three orphans qualify through their poverty, not merely their orphanhood. The poor student qualifies if genuinely in need.
Practical split: With PKR 12,000 across eight people, no single share is large; the imam could give PKR 1,500 to each of the eight, which is defensible as equal sharing, or concentrate on the neediest. Concentration is permitted, but the imam should record the reasoning. He must not give zakat to his own dependents (parents, children, wife) if he is obligated to support them, and he should verify that the stranded traveler is not a relative he must maintain.
Timing: Distribution before Ramadan ends is fine; zakat may be paid early once nisab is met. The pledge is excluded. The widow's bracelet is returned. The cows are not zakat.