This explains the arithmetic. It is not a religious ruling. We are bullion dealers, not scholars, and if your situation is unusual you should ask someone qualified.
Two conditions.
First, your gold has to reach nisab. For gold, the nisab is eighty-five grams of pure gold, according to the majority of jurists. If you own less than that, no zakat is due.
Second, a full lunar year has to pass with the gold in your possession and above the nisab threshold.
A quarter of a tenth. That is 2.5% of the value of the gold.
Work out the weight of pure gold you hold, not the total weight. A hundred-gram 21k bracelet contains 87.5 grams of pure gold, and that is what you calculate on.
Then multiply the pure weight by the price per gram on the day you pay the zakat, not the day you bought it. It is the current value that counts.
Then take 2.5% of the result.
An example. You hold two hundred grams of 24k, and gold is at SAR 343 a gram today.
Pure weight: 200 grams. Value: 200 × 343 = SAR 68,600. Zakat: 68,600 × 0.025 = SAR 1,715.
There is a genuine scholarly disagreement here, and it is more honest to name it than to skip past it.
One view: no zakat is due on jewellery a woman actually wears, because it counts among her needs rather than her stored wealth.
Another view: zakat is due if it reaches nisab, because it is gold either way.
Both positions have their evidence and their scholars. We are not going to pick between them. Ask someone whose knowledge you trust.
Investment gold — bars, coins, anything bought to hold — is a different matter. There is little disagreement that zakat is due on it once it reaches nisab and a year has passed.
No. Zakat can be paid from any wealth you have. If you have enough cash, pay it from that and keep your gold intact.
We have one on the site that does this at today's price. Enter the weight and the karat and it gives you the number. It is a rough tool, and that is all it claims to be.
When you ask what gold costs, you get two numbers — not one: live global spot in Riyals, plus the declared margin that turns raw metal into a finished bar.
Read MorePure gold is a soft metal. You can very nearly scratch it with a fingernail. That is why jewellery is not made from it, and it is exactly why bullion is.
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