Niṣāb
Definition
Nisab is the minimum amount of wealth that, once held for a full lunar year, triggers the obligation to pay zakat. Al-Ghazali presents the legal thresholds for different categories of wealth — gold, silver, trade goods, livestock, agricultural produce — and then makes the spiritual point: the nisab is a mercy, not a loophole. It protects the poor from an obligation they cannot sustain while ensuring that those whose wealth has genuinely exceeded their needs participate in the community's welfare. Those close to the nisab who are tempted to calculate their way below it are already showing the disease of love of wealth that zakat is meant to cure.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Niṣāb.
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"The finder must pay one-fifth of gold and silver, with no consideration for a fiscal year. It is preferable not to consider the nisab, as the obligation of one-fifth strengthens its similarity to booty. Considering the nisab is not unreasonable since it's similar to zakat funds and should be restricted to gold and silver as per the correct opinion."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 5: The Mysteries of Zakat
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"Proximity does not count here. The nisab of wheat is not completed by barley, but the nisab of barley is completed by "sult," as it is a type of it. This is the obligatory amount if irrigated by natural means or canal. If irrigated by mechanical means or buckets, half of the tenth is due, and if both are used, the predominant method is considered."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 5: The Mysteries of Zakat
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"If delayed due to an absence of eligible recipients and their wealth is lost, zakat drops from them. Advancing zakat is permissible on condition of the nisab's completion and the fiscal year's binding. It is permissible to advance zakat for two consecutive years. If advanced and the poor person dies before the fiscal year, renounces faith, becomes wealthy in a manner unrelated to the advancement, the owner's wealth is lost, or the owner dies, the given amount does not count as zakat and recovery is not possible unless provisioned for recovery."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 5: The Mysteries of Zakat
Appears in
1 book in the library
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