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Why Zakat On Production Applied To Monthly Salary?
Ghamidi sb maintains like the core of religion, practices like Zakat have also reached us through consensus. If so, then why are there so many disagreements about it? Most think there’s no Zakat on monthly salaries. But as per Ghamidi sb, a 10% is due on monthly salaries (he compares it with agricultural production). I think the former view is more reasonable. In today’s time when inflation is skyrocketing, a great burden would be placed on a salaried person. (If one earns Rs. 100,000, he has to pay Rs. 10,000 every month in Zakat). This is a considerable amount which might even prevent a salaried person from fulfilling his obligations towards his family (e.g. one of his kid won’t be able to go to school). I think the view that Zakat is payable on savings not income makes way more sense and this has been the way for so many centuries in so many Muslim communities. Was Zakat payable on salaried persons as well, we should’ve found ample evidence of this in Prophet(pbuh)’s own time. @UmerQureshi @faisalharoon @Irfan76
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3 Replies
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Why Zakat On Production Applied To Monthly Salary?
updated 3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Zakat is a sunnah that has reached us with ijma and tawatur. There is no difference of opinion on the sharia of zakat. The differences of opinion are in the application of the sharia and such differences shall always remain because as humans we have to interpret laws.
20% (khums) and 10% (ushr) on agricultural production also come to us from the sunnah that has reached us with ijma and tawatur. These rates are the same even in the sharias of previous nations as it is evident from the Bible. Since at the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW, agriculture was the only means of production, Ghamidi sahab has made an ijtihad and has applied it to all other forms of production in the modern day, for example, salaries, wages, etc. In my opinion this is quite logical and was intended to begin with. If one does not agree with it that is fine, but the argument for disagreement cannot be rise in inflation. They have to have a valid argument that restricts zakat to only agricultural production or an argument that shows that salaries and wages are materially different from agricultural production for the purpose of zakat.
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@faisalharoon Sir I do agree that inflation doesn’t pose a valid argument against this Ijtihad of Ghamidi Sb. But I did have some concerns about considering wages or incomes as production. My argument was that granted agriculture was the only form of production during our Prophet’s era, but it certainly wasn’t the only source of income. And as answered on a previous discussion of mine, the traders who earned on merchandise (income based on profit in trade of goods) paid the usual 2.5 percent yearly. And as such would be the case of people who would provide any kind of service and get compensation for it (as I understand the landscape of Arabia to be complex during that time with different people and vast amounts of trade etc and so certainly some variety would exist in that economy too). So generally, in the production of goods and services in the modern day economy, considering wages as the production itself would be a big jump, as it is the compensation of employees who we can say are a means of production to that final good.
So if agriculture was indeed the only form of production of any tangible or consumable product during that era, then certainly it can be applied to countless other forms of production in this era, from the manufacturing industry to the IT industry, but applying it onto the wages of the employees itself doesn’t seem that convincing. So, for analogy purposes, wouldn’t employees be akin to the labourers working on the agricultural lands during that era? But the 10 or 20 percent would certainly only apply to the one who owns the land and the produced good (as in today’s economy where it would apply to the owners of businesses or companies that produce goods).
Anyways, I would love your input on the points I raised and I might not have a detailed understanding of Ghamidi sb’s reasoning as I have only watched videos and these points I had weren’t addressed there. TIA
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Also, not every production is liable to pay zakat against it, a certain amount as Nisab has to be prescribed. In the case of salaries, this threshold is suggested to be the taxable salary. Also, the taxes which are paid, are counted as Zakat paid.
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