Zakat on gas cylinders in a wholesale warehouse

A question about zakat on gas cylinders in a wholesale warehouse, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that if the warehouse's trade is confined to selling gas and exchanging cylinders, zakat is due on the value of the gas alone, the cylinders being containers; if it sells cylinders both empty and full, they are trade goods and zakat is due on their value together with the gas. ¹

The owner of a warehouse selling household gas wholesale asked whether zakat is due on the empty gas cylinders or only on the liquid gas inside them. ¹

The Department answered that in principle zakat is due on everything held for trade, citing Surat al-Baqara 2:267 and Mujahid's explanation of it as referring to trade, as reported in Tafsir Ibn Kathir (1/697). ¹ It said that if the warehouse only fills cylinders, sells them full and exchanges them for empty ones, the trade is confined to the gas, so zakat is due on the value of the gas and not on the cylinders, which are containers for the goods and lack the condition of growth. It cited a hadith narrated by al-Bukhari whose meaning is that a Muslim owes no alms on his horse or his slave, and Umayra's gloss that zakat is due only on growing wealth. The trader values the gas he owns at the end of the zakat year, adds his other cash, and if the total reaches the nisab pays 2.5% on all of it. ¹ If, however, the warehouse sells cylinders both empty and full and earns from both, they are trade goods, and zakat is due on the value of the empty cylinder plus the value of the gas in it. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3795, dated 24 August 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.