Calculating zakāh when you have income but no savings

Question

Salaam. I am confused on how to calculate my zakaat. I have been working as a teacher since September. I don’t have any savings. Generally don’t coke out the month with spare money. But I earn approximately 625 Kuwaiti dinar a month.

— Saira Khalid, UK

Answer

The first time you received this salary, you will have become an owner of niṣāb, and thus, exactly one lunar year after this date, if you still own the niṣāb, zakāt will be due upon that wealth.

However, if you do not have any savings and nor do you come out of the month with any spare money at all, which means that there comes a time wherein you own absolutely no wealth, the responsibility of zakāt will be dropped at that time. Once you receive the amount of niṣāb again in any way, your year will start from that day and on this very day of the next lunar year, if you still own niṣāb, zakāt will be due upon you.

[Refer to Bahār e Sharī`at, Vol. 5, Chapter of Zakāt]

And Allāh knows best.

Faqīr Sayyid `Abdul Ṣamad al-Qādirī · (may he be pardoned) · Dhū al-Ḥijjah 21, 1445 AH