My father saves enough money and my mother have jewelleries. I know the nisaab for savings, gold and silver.As per the criteria, Zakah is wajib on my parents. till now, in there entire life they didn’t paid zakat. they did repented of not paying it.we can calculate all unpaid zakah on jewelleries but how can we calculate zakah on savings as we didn’t know how much my father saved in previous years. Also there is no idea when my father became the sahib-e-nisaab. How can my father pay unpaid zakah of previous years.
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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
According to the view of the majority of the scholars, there is no Zakat on a woman’s gold jewelry; so your mother does not have to pay Zakat on her jewelry for the previous years, and she is not considered to be disobedient for not paying Zakat on it.
If she wishes to pay Zakat on it in the future, in the coming years, in order to be on the safe side as a way of acting according to the view of the scholars who believe that it is obligatory to pay Zakat on gold jewelry, then it is acceptable.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 87362 and 89106.
With regard to Zakat on the money of your father, then he is not exempted from paying it for the previous years when it was obligatory while he did not pay it out. So, it is obligatory on him to pay it out as we highlighted in Fatwa 22615.
Since he does not know when he owned the Nisaab (the minimum amount liable for Zakat), then he should rely on his predominant belief. The year in which he doubts whether or not he owned the Nisaab, he is not obligated to pay Zakat on his wealth, because in principle he did not own the Nisaab for this year. But the year that he predominantly believes that he owned the Nisaab, then he pays Zakat on this year. He estimates the amount of money that he owned and then pays 2.5 % of it as Zakat.
The Fatwa of the Standing Committee reads:
“Whoever was obliged to pay Zakat and did not pay it at the time it was due, must pay it after, even if it was delayed for many years. So, he pays the Zakat on his money on which he didn’t pay Zakat for all the previous years in which he delayed paying it, and acts according to his predominant belief in estimating his wealth and the number of years if he doubts about them. Allah Says (what means): {So fear Allah as much as you are able.} [Quran 64:16] [End of quote]
The conclusion is that there is no escape for estimating and trying to be on the safe side. He must pay Zakat that he predominantly thinks is due, or is sure in order to be acquitted from sin.
Allah knows best.