When is Zakat due?

Zakat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It is an obligatory annual payment on wealth that exceeds a minimum threshold (nisab), once that wealth has been held for a complete lunar year (hawl). Zakat is owed at a rate of 2.5% (1/40th) of the zakatable wealth on the day the hawl completes.

Two conditions must be met before Zakat is obligatory:

1. Nisab: Your total zakatable net wealth must equal or exceed the nisab threshold.
2. Hawl: A complete Islamic lunar year (approximately 354 days) must have passed while your wealth remained at or above nisab.

On which assets is Zakat due?

Zakat is payable on the following categories of wealth:

• Cash & bank savings — all savings, current accounts, and cash in hand
• Gold & silver — jewellery (with some scholarly difference), coins, and bars
• Trade goods — inventory held for sale, valued at current market price
• Investments — shares, funds, rental property income (with conditions)
• Receivables — debts owed to you that you expect to recover
• Crops & livestock — subject to different rules (Zakat al-Ushr / Zakat al-An'am)

What is excluded from Zakat?

The following are not subject to Zakat:

• Your primary home and personal vehicle
• Personal clothing, household furniture, and items for personal use
• Tools and equipment used directly in your trade (not for sale)
• Debts you owe — these are deducted from your zakatable wealth
• Wealth belonging to others that you hold in trust

Who receives Zakat?

The Quran specifies eight categories of Zakat recipients (8:60): the poor (fuqara), the needy (masakin), those who administer Zakat, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, for freeing slaves, those in debt, in the cause of Allah, and the stranded traveller. In practice, most Zakat is distributed to the poor and needy through established charitable organisations.

The Nisab Threshold — Gold vs Silver

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned two separate nisab thresholds in hadith: 200 dirhams of silver and 20 dinars of gold. Historically, these were roughly equivalent in monetary value. Over the past century, gold and silver prices have diverged dramatically — gold is now roughly 80× more expensive per gram than silver — which means the two thresholds produce very different obligations in today's economy.

There is an ongoing discussion among scholars about which nisab to use. Those who prefer the silver nisab — including many Hanafi scholars — say it is better because more people will qualify to pay Zakat, which means more wealth reaches those in need. Those who prefer the gold nisab argue that gold better reflects real purchasing power in today's economy and that the silver threshold has become unrealistically low. In practice, many contemporary scholars recommend the silver nisab as the safer, more cautious option — ensuring that more people fulfil their Zakat duty.

Why is there a difference between 595g and 612.36g of silver?

The nisab of 200 dirhams refers to the classical dirham coin used in early Islamic history. There is scholarly disagreement on the exact weight of this dirham:

• 595g — based on 1 dirham = 2.975g × 200, as adopted by many contemporary scholars and Islamic finance bodies including AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions).
• 612.36g — based on 1 dirham ≈ 3.0618g, a slightly higher historical estimate sometimes cited in classical Hanafi texts.

The difference is small (about 2.8%), but practically significant. This tool uses 595g as it aligns with the majority contemporary scholarly consensus and established Islamic finance standards.

Why is there a difference between 85g and 87.48g of gold?

Similarly, the gold nisab of 20 dinars uses the classical dinar weight. Most contemporary scholars and Islamic finance bodies use 85g (1 dinar = 4.25g × 20). A minority position uses 87.48g based on a slightly different classical weight. This tool uses 85g for the gold standard, consistent with the majority scholarly position.

Madhab Differences — The Hawl

The primary difference between the four madhabs in Zakat calculation is not the nisab standard itself, but rather how they define the hawl — specifically, whether wealth must stay above nisab continuously throughout the year, or only at its beginning and end.

The problem with paying Zakat "on Ramadan"

Every year, millions of Muslims pay Zakat during Ramadan as a habit — not because Ramadan is their actual Zakat due date, but because it feels like the right time. This is a well-intentioned practice, but it is technically imprecise. Your actual Zakat date is determined by one thing and one thing only: the date your wealth first crossed the nisab threshold, valued at that time's prevailing gold or silver prices. That date is unique to you and unlikely to be the 1st of Ramadan.

Paying early is generally accepted by scholars. But paying on the wrong date means you may be calculating 2.5% on the wrong balance — either overpaying or underpaying. As Zakat is a precise religious obligation (Fard), accuracy matters.

How your real nisab date is determined

Your nisab date is the first day that the monetary value of your zakatable wealth, converted to the price of 595g of silver (or 85g of gold) on that specific day, was met or exceeded. This is not a fixed rupee or dollar figure — it changes daily with the silver and gold spot price.

For example, if you had Rs. 150,000 in savings on 15 October 2022, the nisab in PKR on that day might have been Rs. 145,000 (based on silver price × FX rate on that date). Your nisab would have been crossed on that date. Six months later, the same Rs. 150,000 might not cross nisab if silver prices had risen. This is why the exact date, and the exact prices on that date, matter.

What makes this tool unique

To our knowledge, this is the first publicly available tool that:

• Parses an actual bank statement (PDF, CSV, or XLSX) to extract your daily balance history
• Looks up the historical silver or gold price on each exact date in your statement
• Converts your balance to USD using historical FX rates on each exact date
• Compares your wealth to the nisab threshold on every single day — not just once at an average
• Identifies the precise Gregorian date of first crossing, converts it to the Hijri calendar, and shows your Zakat anniversary for the next 5 years

Adjusting with additional assets and debts

Your bank balance alone is not always your full zakatable wealth. You may own gold, investments, or trade goods that are not reflected in your bank statement. Conversely, you may have outstanding debts that reduce your net zakatable wealth.

In Step 3 (the results page), you can enter additional assets and debts in your local currency. The tool adds these to every data point in your balance series and recalculates the crossing date dynamically. You can adjust the figures and watch the nisab crossing date shift in real time — allowing you to converge on your accurate date by gradually adding all your relevant assets and liabilities. This loopback mechanism means you do not need to have everything calculated in advance; you can experiment interactively.

Already know your Zakat date?

If you already have an established Zakat date from a previous year's calculation (or from a scholar), you can enter that Hijri date directly in Step 1. The tool converts it to the Gregorian calendar and checks whether, on that hawl anniversary date in your uploaded statement, your wealth was above or below nisab — telling you whether Zakat was obligatory in that year.

Supported features

• Currencies: PKR, USD, GBP, EUR, AED — with historical FX conversion (CAD, AUD, SAR, INR - coming soon)
• Nisab standards: Silver (595g), Gold (85g)
• Madhabs: Hanafi active; Maliki / Shafi'i / Hanbali coming soon
• File formats: PDF (text-based), CSV, XLSX bank statements
• Hawl dates: Accurate Hijri conversion using the Umm al-Qura calendar; next 5 years shown
• Additional assets & debts: Interactive refinement on the results page
• Known Zakat date: Enter a Hijri date to check a specific hawl anniversary
• Privacy: No data stored; all processing is in-memory and discarded after your session

Privacy & data handling

Your bank statement is uploaded to our server, parsed in memory, and immediately discarded. No transaction history, account numbers, balances, or personal identifiers are written to disk, logged, or stored. The tool operates statelessly — each upload is processed fresh with no persistence.