Zakat on Ornaments Intended for Personal Use

6-10-2022 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu alaykum Before this year I was following the opinion that Zakat must be paid on gold and silver jewellery. Now I follow the other opinion. Recently I have come to know I own silver jewellery which I had forgotten about in previous years when I was doing my calculations for zakat. My question is, now that I follow the opinion there is no zakat on jewellery, do I have to pay the zakat of this silver jewellery for the previous years I had forgotten to calculate it? JazakAllahu khayr

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

As long as you imitate the opinion of the majority of scholars who state that no Zakat is due on ornaments intended for personal use based on your sheer conviction and not by means of avoiding paying Zakat out, then you are not obliged to give out Zakat for the past period.

However, the amounts of Zakat you previously paid out are, according to the opinion of the majority of scholars, considered charity for which you would be rewarded. The Fatwa we adopt on our website is that paying out Zakat on ornaments intended for personal use is recommended, not obligatory, as a way of maintaining reconciliation among all views.

Allah knows best.