Zakat on Gold & Jewellery

Gold is the original zakatable asset — it sets the nisab threshold for the whole system — yet the question many Muslim families wrestle with is surprisingly modern: do you pay zakat on the jewellery a woman actually wears? Bars and coins held as an investment are straightforward. Worn jewellery is where the schools of law genuinely differ. This article explains both, shows you how to value gold by its weight so you are not at the mercy of a jeweller's markup, sets out the 85-gram nisab, and deals with the messy real-world cases of mixed and under-karat gold. The rate, as always, is 2.5% on what you have held for a lunar year above the nisab.

Investment Gold: Always Zakatable

Gold held as a store of value — bullion bars, sovereigns and other coins, gold bought as a hedge — is zakatable by unanimous agreement. There is no dispute here: if you have owned it for a lunar year and it meets the threshold, you pay 2.5% of its market value. The same applies to gold-backed investment products and to silver held the same way. We cover the wealth-transfer side of this in gold and silver as inheritance and zakatable wealth.

"...those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah — give them tidings of a painful punishment."

— Qur'an, Sūrat al-Tawba 9:34

Worn Jewellery: Where Scholars Differ

Jewellery that a woman owns and wears for adornment is the genuine point of difference, and you should know both positions rather than assume one.

The View of the Majority (No Zakat on Worn Jewellery)

The Maliki, Shafiʿi and Hanbali schools hold that gold and silver jewellery in normal, lawful, personal use — worn, not hoarded as wealth — is exempt, like other personal-use items. On this view a woman's everyday jewellery carries no annual zakat, provided it is within customary limits and not stockpiled as a wealth substitute.

The Hanafi View (Zakat Is Due)

The Hanafi school holds that gold and silver are zakatable by their very nature, regardless of whether they are worn or stored. On this view, worn jewellery is subject to the annual 2.5%, just like bullion. Many contemporary scholars favour this position as the safer, more cautious choice, precisely because gold is the benchmark commodity of the zakat system.

The 85-Gram Nisab

The nisab for gold is classically 20 mithqāl, which is commonly taken as 85 grams of pure gold (some scholars use 87.48g; the difference is small). If your zakatable gold equals or exceeds 85 grams of pure-gold content, zakat is due at 2.5%. The silver nisab is separately set at around 595 grams. When you hold a mix of cash, gold and other wealth, scholars generally have you combine it all and use the lower of the two monetary thresholds — usually the silver value — so that more of the poor benefit; this is why most calculators default to the silver nisab for mixed wealth.

How to Value Gold by Weight

You pay on the gold content, not on what you paid at the shop. Retail jewellery carries a large making charge and dealer margin that is not part of the zakatable value. The clean method is:

1. Weigh the piece in grams (a kitchen scale is fine; jewellers will also weigh it).
2. Adjust for purity by its karat, since most jewellery is not pure 24-karat gold.
3. Multiply the pure-gold weight by the current market price per gram of 24k gold.
4. Apply 2.5% to that value.

The purity multipliers follow directly from the karat: 24k is pure (×1.000), 22k is ×0.917, 21k is ×0.875, 18k is ×0.750, 14k is ×0.583, and 9k is ×0.375.

Mixed and Under-Karat Gold

Most real jewellery is an alloy. An 18k chain is only three-quarters gold; the rest is copper or other metals that are not zakatable. So for under-karat gold you do not value the whole weight as if it were pure — you scale it down by the purity factor above and value only the actual gold. The same applies to "rolled gold" or gold-plated items, where the true gold content is tiny.

For mixed-karat collections, the simplest approach is to total the pure-gold-equivalent grams across all pieces, compare the total against the 85-gram nisab, and value the lot at the 24k price per gram.

A Worked Calculation

Suppose you hold 100 grams of 22k gold jewellery and 60 grams of 18k gold, and the 24k market price is $75 per gram. Assume you follow the view that worn jewellery is zakatable (or this gold is investment gold).

Notice that the raw weight is 160 grams but the zakatable pure-gold weight is only 136.7 grams — valuing by purity rather than gross weight makes a real difference to the bill.

Putting It Together

Decide your position on worn jewellery — many take the cautious Hanafi view that it is zakatable. Value gold by weight and purity at the 24k market price, ignore making charges and non-gold stones, and combine it with your other wealth to test the nisab. Then apply 2.5%. Keep your chosen approach consistent, and take an unusual collection to a qualified scholar.

Our zakat calculator lets you enter gold by weight and karat, applies the nisab, and computes the 2.5% for you. For how gold passes on at death, see gold and silver as inheritance and zakatable wealth.