Zakāh on money gifted and set aside to buy property

Question

My name is M***** from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

I got gifted money from a my relative to buy an apartment and i decided that i will buy an apartment using that money. And then I’ll rent the apartment out.

But until now i havnt found a nice apartment to purchase, so i have kept that money aside and im sure that i will use all that money to buy the apartment and then rent it

So since that money is with me, do i have to pay zakaat over it.

Keeping in mind its been like a month i received this amount

— Name withheld, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Answer

If you own niṣāb at the time of receiving this wealth, zakāt will be due upon this gift at the time it is due upon the priorly owned wealth. However, if you did not own niṣāb prior to receiving this gift and a complete lunar year has not passed over this wealth, zakāt will not be due upon it until a complete lunar year has passed.

It is a condition for the necessitation of zakāt that the niṣāb remains in the possession of the owner for twelve months of the lunar (‘Islāmic) calendar. Listing the conditions which make zakāt necessary, Ṣadr al-Sharī`ah mentions:

سال گزرنا

“For one year to pass”

[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 16, 1445 AH