Paying olive zakat from old oil

A question about paying olive zakat from old oil instead of oil from the new harvest, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that paying from the harvest itself is best, that old oil counts if it matches the new in quality, and reported the differing Shafi'i and Hanafi views on the matter. ¹

The questioner asked whether olive zakat may be paid from old oil rather than from the oil of the new harvest. ¹

The Department answered that zakat on olives is due according to one Shafi'i view and the Hanafi school: a tenth of what is rain-fed and a twentieth of what is irrigated at cost, with a minimum (nisab) of five awsuq, about 611 kilograms. ¹ It said the payer should in principle give from the harvest itself, because zakat attaches to the property as a form of partnership, citing al-Khatib al-Shirbini's Mughni al-Muhtaj. ¹ It reported the Shafi'i view that zakat may be paid from outside the property itself, as a concession to the payer, provided the quality matches, quality being judged by specialists through the oil's acidity, and quoted al-Imrani's al-Bayan that age alone is not a defect for them. ¹ It reported the Hanafi view that value may be paid instead, and quoted Ibn Maza's al-Muhit al-Burhani that Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf disregard quality when the payer gives the same kind in an equal amount, while Muhammad ibn al-Hasan requires the difference in value to be paid. ¹ It concluded that paying from the harvest itself is best and most certain to discharge the duty, since paying from an earlier harvest may carry a hint of cheating the poor by giving them oil of lower value, and that old oil counts if it matches the new in quality. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3915, dated 25 August 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.