- Zakah for three types of goods

The conclusion is that there are three types of goods which Zakah is necessary upon.

1. Gold and Silver.
2. Goods for business.
3. Animals which are kept for production and who eat on free range land.

1) Zakah is not necessary on pearls and diamonds and other jewellery (except gold and silver) regardless of the amount, however, if they are purchased with the intention of doing business then Zakah is necessary [Alamgiri, Durr-e-Mukhtar, Bahar].

2) If a person has more than the threshold (Nisaab) and in the running year the goods increased then the new goods are not counted as a new year but when the year finishes for the old goods it will also finish for the new goods even if the new goods are acquired one minute before the year end.

3) When giving Zakah or separating money for Zakah it is necessary to make the intention of Zakah. Intention means if asked you can without doubt say it is Zakah [Alamgiri].

4) If you gave money voluntary all year and then finally made the intention that whatever given was Zakah, then this will not count [Alamgiri].

5) Zakah money was in your hand and the poor snatched it away then the Zakah will count and if it fell on the floor and a poor person picked it up and if you knew the person and was happy, then the Zakah will count [Alamgiri].

6) Zakah money cannot be used in assisting the dead (buying Kafan, burial etc.) or for building a Mosque because this would not make the person the owner. If you want to spend money on things like helping the dead or building the Mosque then the method of doing this is to give the money to a poor person and then the poor person spends the money for these causes as this would mean both parties would gain reward.
It is stated in the Hadith that if the money of Sadqa passes through one hundred hands then every person would gain as much reward as the first person who gave the money and there would be no decrease in the reward [Radd-ul-Mohtar, Bahar, Qazi Khan].

7) It is not necessary when giving Zakah to say to the poor that this is Zakah as only the intention is sufficient. If you gave the Zakah buy saying that this is a gift for you or it is a present for your children or Eid money and the intention is that you are giving Zakah, then the Zakah will count. The reason for this is because there are many poor people that feel ashamed in taking Zakah and therefore you should not tell them that you are giving Zakah to them [Bahar].

8) If a person with Nisaab decides to give more than his Nisaab calculation of Zakah by giving the amount for two or three Nisaabs beforehand, and then at the end of the year he finds out that he had to give more than just one Nisaab and he had already done this by giving money before it's due time then this will count. However, if he had given more than what was due from him with the intention for that year and then at the end of the year it was more than his Nisaab calculation was due then he cannot carry the excess amount to the next year (because the intention was for only to give that year) [Alamgiri, Bahar].

9) If a person owns one thousand pounds but he decides to give Zakah for two thousand pounds and makes the intention that if I have that much amount at the end of the year then this Zakah will be for this year and if not then the excess money will go towards next year, then this is allowed [Alamgiri, Bahar].

10) If you are in doubt that you have paid Zakah then you must pay again [Alamgiri, Radd-ul-Mohtar, Bahar, Siraajia, Behra-ul-Raiq].