Paying zakāh on owned land which is to be sold


Question #322:

A brother bought few plots of land in the year 2001, all of which intending for residential purpose. But later (last year) he intended to sell them for constructing one of them. Does he have to pay zakāh on the land?

Answer:

It is upon the brother to pay zakāh from the land which he intends to sell once a year has past after this intention of selling.  This is based upon the opinion of the majority of scholars, that zakāh must be paid from that which is intended for profit and business. Their strongest evidence is the hadeeth of Abu Huriara (Radiallahu anhu) that the Messenger of Allaah (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said: ((as for Khaalid then you have oppressed him, he only collected his shields and prepared for the cause of Allaah)).   So the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said this to his collectors for the zakāh when they sought to collect the zakāh from him for his collections of swords, shields which he had with him, thinking that he was selling them.  So this is very clear that for those things which one keeps for sale and business, he must give zakāh at the end of every year and this was something known at the time of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) .

This is the fatwa of  of Ibnu Umar (Radiallahu anhu) and its not known from the any of the sahaaba to have differed with him, also the fatwa of The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta , Sheikh al Fawzaan, ibn Baaz and many others.

Benefit: How does one pay zakat from the items he sells of land he has kept for trading…?

The scholars have said that he is to price the value of his products at the end of each year and pay the percentage of the zakat from the value.

See fathul-allaam  (2/477-480).

Answered by: Abū Hārūn Muḥammad ʿAbdin-Nūr