Zakat on silver
Zakat on silver
What counts, how fineness becomes pure metal content, and where the schools genuinely disagree about jewellery you wear.
Only the pure metal counts
Jewellery is alloyed — pure silver is too soft to wear. Zakat is due on the silver content, not on the gross weight of the piece, so valuing what the scales say at the spot price overstates the holding by whatever fraction is alloy.
Silver is measured in fineness, parts per thousand. Sterling is 925 — 92.5% silver — so 7.5% of a sterling piece is copper, and not zakatable.
| Fineness | Pure silver | In 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| 999 | 99.9% | 99.9 g |
| 925 | 92.5% | 92.5 g |
| 800 | 80.0% | 80.0 g |
Each piece is valued at its own purity and then summed. Averaging purity across a collection is wrong: 100 g of 9-karat and 100 g of 24-karat is not 200 g of 16.5-karat once the pieces are priced.
A worked example
- 100 g of sterling (925) silver
- gross weight
- × 92.5% purity
- 92.50 g pure silver
- × $2.05 per gram
- $190
The Zakat on silver nisāb is 595 g, which is $1,222 today. This holding is below it on its own — though what governs is your total zakatable wealth, and whether metals pool with cash depends on the madhhab.
Prices are quoted per troy ounce (31.1034768 g), not the ordinary ounce. See silver price per gram for that conversion.
Jewellery you wear: where the schools part company
This is the question people are usually really asking, and it is a genuine difference rather than a matter of preference. Gold and silver held as bullion or investment are zakatable on every view. What divides the schools is silver jewellery worn for personal use.
- Zakatable — Hanafi
- Worn jewellery is assessed like any other holding of the metal.
- Not zakatable — Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali
- Jewellery in genuine personal use is treated as a possession in use rather than stored wealth, and falls outside the assessment.
Rizq Trackr does not pick between them. You choose the school, and the result states which position produced your figure and why — so you can check it against what you have been taught, or take it to someone who can.
Work it out
The calculator takes weight and fineness directly, applies the madhhab you choose, and shows every line of the working — including which holdings counted and which did not.
An educational estimate, pending scholarly review. The positions above are stated as the schools hold them; where they differ, the calculator tells you which one produced your figure rather than choosing for you.