Zakat
Zakat calculator for Sri Lanka
Zakat al-Mal is 2.5 per cent of the wealth you own that Zakat applies to, paid once you have held it for one lunar year and it has reached the nisab: the value of 87.48 grams of gold or 612.36 grams of silver. Enter your figures in rupees below and the calculator does the arithmetic.
Calculator
Your Zakat in rupees
Every box is optional. Use today's values. The figures stay on your device: nothing is saved, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Your figures
- Net zakatable wealth
- LKR 0
- Nisab at gold price (87.48 g)
- Enter a price
- Nisab at silver price (612.36 g)
- Enter a price
- At or above the lower nisab?
- Needs a price
- Zakat due at 2.5%
- LKR 0
Enter a gold or silver price per gram to compare your wealth with the nisab.
Nisab used: 87.48 g gold / 612.36 g silver. Zakat is due only on wealth held for a full lunar year. Nothing you type here leaves your device.
This is a calculation aid, not a religious ruling. Zakat rules differ between the schools of fiqh on points such as jewellery in use, business assets and retirement funds. Confirm your own case with the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama or a qualified scholar.
How it works
What the calculator adds up
It totals cash and bank balances, business stock and receivables, other investments, and the value of your gold and silver: grams multiplied by the price per gram you enter. The calculator does not look up metal prices, because the rate changes every day and differs between buying and selling. Ask a jeweller or check the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on the day you calculate.
Debts you have to pay now are subtracted, and what remains is your net zakatable wealth. The calculator then works out the nisab in rupees at your gold price and at your silver price, and checks your net wealth against whichever of the two is lower. If it is at or above that figure, Zakat is 2.5 per cent of the net.
The nisab weights are the commonly used 87.48 grams of gold (20 mithqal) and 612.36 grams of silver (200 dirham). Some scholars round these to 85 grams and 595 grams; you can switch to those, and the result panel always shows which figures it used.
What the calculator cannot know is whether a full lunar year has passed, whether jewellery you wear should count, or how your business assets should be valued. Those are questions for a scholar, not a form.
Questions
Zakat questions
Add up the wealth that Zakat applies to: cash and bank balances, gold and silver at the day's price, business stock and money owed to you, and other investments. Subtract debts you have to pay now. If what is left is at or above the nisab and you have held wealth at that level for a full lunar year, Zakat is 2.5 per cent of it, which is one fortieth.
The nisab is not a fixed rupee amount. It is set in metal: the commonly used figures are 87.48 grams of gold (20 mithqal) or 612.36 grams of silver (200 dirham), and some scholars use 85 grams and 595 grams. Its value in rupees therefore moves with the day's gold and silver price in Sri Lanka. The silver figure is usually far lower than the gold one.
Scholars differ on this. Most Sri Lankan Muslims follow the Shafi'i school, which generally does not require Zakat on permissible jewellery that is worn in ordinary use, while the Hanafi school counts it. What counts as ordinary use is a further detail, so ask the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) or a qualified scholar before leaving jewellery out.
Zakat falls due once your wealth has stayed at or above the nisab for one full lunar (Hijri) year. Many people keep track by working it out on the same Hijri date each year. Zakat does not have to be paid in Ramadan, though many people choose to give it then.
Scholars differ on whether, and from when, Zakat is due on retirement funds such as the EPF and ETF that you cannot freely withdraw. This calculator leaves them out. Ask the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) or a qualified scholar how to treat your own balance.
Zakat has eight categories of recipients, named in the Quran in Surah at-Tawbah, verse 60: the poor, the needy, those who collect and administer it, those whose hearts are to be won over, freeing captives, those in debt, in the cause of Allah, and the stranded traveller. Paying for your own pilgrimage is not among them.
Next: the Islamic calendar for your Hijri date, or today's prayer times in Colombo.
When you are ready for Umrah
We arrange Umrah from Colombo with the prices and inclusions written down before you pay anything.