Short answer
Zakat is fard on a Muslim who is adult and sane and owns wealth at or above the nisab, beyond debts and basic needs, for a full lunar year. In the Hanafi school a child or an insane person does not pay zakat; the other three schools say the guardian pays it from their wealth.
Zakat is fard on a free, adult, sane Muslim who fully owns growing wealth (cash, gold, silver, trade goods or grazing livestock) at or above the nisab, free of debt and beyond basic needs, once a lunar year has passed over it.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Zakat is also due on the wealth of a child or an insane person, and the guardian pays it from their wealth.
- Maliki
- Zakat is also due on the wealth of a child or an insane person, and the guardian pays it from their wealth.
- Hanbali
- Zakat is also due on the wealth of a child or an insane person, and the guardian pays it from their wealth.
Explanation
In the Hanafi school, zakat becomes fard when all of these conditions are met:
- You are Muslim.
- You are adult (past puberty) and sane.
- You fully own the wealth and control it. Money you are only holding for someone else is not yours.
- Its value reaches the nisab after subtracting debts that are due.
- It is the kind of wealth that grows or is meant to: cash, gold, silver, trade goods and grazing livestock. Your home, car, clothes and furniture do not count.
- A lunar year has passed since you first owned the nisab (see when zakat is due).
Men and women are equal here. A wife pays zakat on her own savings and jewellery; her husband is not obliged to pay it for her, although he may do so with her permission. A new Muslim owes zakat from the time he or she is Muslim and holds the nisab, not for the years before.
The schools differ over children and the insane. The Hanafis hold that zakat is worship, and worship is not required of someone the Sharia does not yet hold accountable. The Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools treat zakat as a right in the wealth itself, so the guardian pays it from the child's money. See zakat on children's money.
The evidence
Quran, Surah At-Tawba 9:103
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ صَدَقَةًۭ تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌۭ لَّهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿١٠٣﴾
Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them increase, and invoke [Allah 's blessings] upon them. Indeed, your invocations are reassurance for them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.
Zakat is taken from the wealth of believers to purify them and their wealth.
Sahih al-Bukhari 8
Sahih... بني الإسلام على خمس شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله ...
"Islam is built on five: bearing witness that there is no god but Allah..."
The hadith goes on to name zakat as one of the five pillars, binding on every accountable Muslim.
Sunan Abi Dawud 4398
Graded sahih... رفع القلم عن ثلاثة عن النائم حتى يستيقظ ...
"The pen is lifted from three: the sleeper until he wakes, the insane until he recovers, and the child until he grows up."
The Hanafi basis for not requiring zakat, as an act of worship, from a child or an insane person.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Zakat, opening section on who owes zakat. Lists freedom, adulthood, sanity, Islam, full ownership of the nisab and the passing of a year.
- Bada'i al-Sana'i, Kitab al-Zakat, conditions of obligation. Explains why the wealth must be growing and surplus to basic needs.
- al-Majmu', Kitab al-Zakat, on the zakat of a child's and an insane person's wealth. The Shafi'i position that the guardian pays.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.