Zakat on Gold: Nisab, 2.5% and the Jewellery Question
When it becomes due, what it is calculated on, and the one question scholars have genuinely differed about.
Gold is one of the assets zakat was legislated on directly. The mechanics are simple and fixed; only one question about it is genuinely contested.
The three conditions
- Nisab — Your gold must reach the threshold — classically 85 grams (about 7.5 tola). Below it, nothing is due.
- A full lunar year — The holding must complete one hijri year in your ownership. Not a calendar year — the hijri year is about eleven days shorter.
- The rate — 2.5% of the value, calculated on the market value at the time zakat is due, not what you paid for it.
The contested question: worn jewellery
Scholars have differed on whether jewellery in regular personal use is included. One position holds that all gold above nisab is zakatable, resting on the hadith of the woman with gold bangles who was told to pay. Another exempts jewellery genuinely in personal use.
We do not paper over the difference. Our fatwa library sets out both positions with their evidence so you can follow the one you are convinced by, and the calculator lets you apply either.
Working it out
- 1
Weigh everything
All gold you own, by purity — 24K, 22K and 18K counted at their actual gold content. - 2
Value it at today’s rate
Market value on your zakat date, not the purchase price. - 3
Check the nisab
Gold and silver holdings are combined for this test in the view of most scholars. - 4
Take 2.5%
And pay it to those entitled to it.
Let the calculator do the arithmetic
It handles purity, mixed holdings, silver and both jewellery positions.