How is Zakat calculated when years pass without payment and the asset remains in the owner's possession?
Chapter on Zakat on Sheep
Al-Mughni
Book of Zakat
Primary text
If Zakat is established upon the liability (*dhimmah*) and the owner remains in possession of the wealth for multiple years without paying the due Zakat, the owner must pay the Zakat for all preceding years. The Zakat amount due in subsequent years is not reduced by the obligation of the prior years, even if the owner possesses an amount exceeding the minimum threshold. If, for instance, forty sheep pass three years without payment, three sheep become due. If one possesses one hundred dinars, seven and a half dinars are due. This is because the Zakat became a debt upon the liability, and the debt does not affect the reduction of the minimum threshold.
Supporting text
If the owner has no other wealth from which to pay the accumulated Zakat, one view suggests the Zakat obligation may lapse for the amount that constitutes a debt, as debt prevents the obligation of Zakat. However, it is argued that a thing cannot annul itself. If Zakat is tied to the asset (*ayn*), and multiple years pass without payment, the Zakat for the first year becomes attached to the asset for that amount. If the asset was exactly the minimum threshold, no Zakat is due in subsequent years because the minimum threshold has been diminished. If it was more than the threshold, the amount for the first year's due is set aside, and Zakat is due on the remainder. If the owner has forty sheep and a lamb is born each year, a sheep is due every year because the minimum threshold is completed by the newly born asset. If the offspring was born after the Zakat became due, the second year's cycle begins from the time the minimum threshold was completed by the new birth.