How to Calculate Zakat on Gold, Silver and Cash: Nisab in Tola, Grams and Rupees

When zakat becomes due

Zakat is an obligation on a Muslim who owns wealth at or above the nisab, beyond their basic needs and free of debt, for one full lunar year. The rate on zakatable wealth is 2.5%, or one fortieth. Banuri Town’s Darul Ifta states these conditions in its fatwa on the nisab, and gives the example that someone holding 200,000 rupees owes 5,000.

This guide follows the Hanafi rulings published by Darul Ifta Banuri Town, which most readers in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh will recognise, and shows where other countries and schools differ. It explains a calculation. It is not a fatwa, and a doubtful case belongs with a qualified scholar. A check on that example: 2.5% of Rs2,00,000 is Rs0.

The nisab in tola, grams and rupees

One tola is 11.664 grams. The nisab is expressed in gold or silver, and since money is no longer made of either, it is converted into rupees at the day’s price.

Prices change daily, so no fixed rupee figure is safe to print. With made-up rates of Rs 400,000 a tola for 24-carat gold and Rs 6,500 a tola for silver, the gold nisab is Rs30,00,000 and the silver nisab is Rs3,41,250. Use your jeweller’s rate for the day your year ends.

Which nisab applies: gold or silver?

This is where most people go wrong, and the Banuri fatwas are clear. A person who owns only gold, with no cash beyond basic needs, no silver and no trade goods, looks at 7.5 tola of gold. A person who owns gold together with cash, silver or trade goods adds everything together and compares the total with the value of 52.5 tola of silver.

• 2 tola of gold and nothing else: no zakat. Banuri fatwa 144409100227 answers exactly this case. The gold is worth Rs8,00,000, below the gold nisab of Rs30,00,000.
• 6 tola of gold and Rs 50,000 in cash: the total is Rs24,50,000, which is above the silver nisab of Rs3,41,250, so zakat of Rs61,250 is due even though the gold alone is below 7.5 tola.
• 7.5 tola of gold alone: Rs30,00,000 against Rs30,00,000, so zakat of Rs75,000 is due.

The National Zakat Foundation in the UK also advises the silver measure when you hold a mix of assets, reasoning that it is safer and more beneficial to those who receive zakat.

What goes into your zakatable wealth

• Gold and silver, in any form: coins, bars, jewellery. Price only the pure content: 22-carat gold is 22/24 pure.
• Cash in hand and money in bank accounts.
• Money owed to you that you expect to get back.
• Trade goods and business stock, valued at the selling price.
• Shares and investments held to trade, at today’s market value.
• Prize bonds, savings certificates and similar holdings, valued at what you would receive. Ask your scholar if you are unsure about a particular product.

Not counted: the house you live in, your car, furniture, clothes and the tools you work with, because they are part of your basic needs. The Banuri fatwas speak of wealth beyond essential needs, so ask your scholar how much cash to set aside for them; the calculator has an optional box for it.

Jewellery you wear

The Hanafi position, quoted in the Banuri fatwas from the standard reference Radd al-Muhtar, is that gold and silver are zakatable however they are held, including jewellery used for adornment. Many scholars of the other schools hold that permitted jewellery worn regularly is exempt. If you follow another school, or your family’s scholar does, untick the jewellery setting in the calculator and the worn pieces are left out.

Malaysian state authorities add a local rule: worn jewellery is zakatable only above a customary amount, reported as 800 g in Kuala Lumpur.

Debts

Banuri Town says to deduct debts you owe to people and then compare what is left with the nisab. In practice that means loans, credit-card balances, unpaid bills, wages you owe and instalments that are due. A long-term balance such as a whole mortgage is not usually deducted in full; ask your scholar how to treat it. The calculator only deducts what you type.

A worked example in rupees

A family holds 5 tola of 22-carat jewellery, Rs 150,000 in cash and Rs 600,000 in the bank, and owes Rs 100,000 that is due. At the made-up rates above, the jewellery’s pure gold is worth Rs18,33,333. Total assets are Rs25,83,333. Subtract the debt and the net wealth is Rs24,83,333. Because there is wealth besides gold, the silver nisab of Rs3,41,250 applies; the net wealth is well above it, so zakat is 2.5% of Rs24,83,333, which is Rs62,083.

Had the family held only the 5 tola of gold, it would be under the 7.5 tola gold nisab and owe nothing under the Banuri ruling. The rates are made up for the example; yours come from the day.

How the nisab differs between countries

The same wealth can be above the nisab in one country and below it in another, because countries and schools convert the hadith’s 20 mithqal of gold and 200 dirhams of silver into different weights.

The effect is real. Take Rs 340,000 in the bank at the made-up silver rate. On the Hanafi silver nisab of Rs3,41,250 it is below the line, while on the 595 g silver nisab of Rs3,31,576 it is above, and on the Diyanet figure of Rs3,12,740 it is above. The calculator shows all three side by side.

The government bank deduction in Pakistan

Separate from your own obligation, banks in Pakistan deduct zakat at 2.5% from accounts on the first day of Ramadan. For 2026 the government notified a threshold of PKR 503,529, calculated from silver at PKR 9,591 a tola, and the deduction is skipped for account holders who have filed a declaration that they will pay zakat themselves. The government threshold can be higher than the market silver nisab, so someone who follows the Hanafi silver nisab may owe zakat on balances below the level at which the bank deducts.

The lunar year and your due date

The year is a Hijri year of about 354 days, not 365. It starts the day your wealth first reaches the nisab, and zakat falls due on the same Hijri date a year later. Many people choose one fixed date each year, such as 1 Ramadan, and pay zakat on what they own that day. If you do that, ask your scholar whether you may do so in your case. The zakat calculator finds the Hijri date and the Gregorian date of your next anniversary, and the Hijri converter shows it in your calendar.

Missed years

If you missed zakat in earlier years, work out each year on the wealth you had then, taking 2.5% of each year at or above the nisab, and add them up. Whether earlier unpaid zakat reduces the later years’ wealth is a point on which scholars differ; the calculator does not deduct it, and you should ask your scholar before you rely on a total.

Paying it and keeping a record

Zakat goes to the categories of recipients named in the Quran, and a masjid or madrasa collecting it should keep a record of what it receives and gives out. The distribution register generator produces a signed record of zakat, meat or ration given to families, and the donation receipt generator gives the donor a receipt.

Common questions

Sources

Reviewed on 20 Oct 2026 against the published sources below. Laws and prices change, so check the current position before you rely on a figure.

• Darul Ifta, Jamia Uloom Islamia Allama Banuri Town: fatwa 144509100152, zakat nisab
• Darul Ifta Banuri Town: fatwa 144408102065, zakat on less than 7.5 tola of gold, and fatwa 144409100227 on 2 tola
• Darul Ifta Banuri Town: fatwa 144409101010, nisab, debts and the lunar year
• National Zakat Foundation (UK): nisab rates
• Nukta: Pakistan notifies nisab for 2026 zakat deduction

Try the calculator

Keep reading