Salam Reader,

Assalamu alaykum,

During his caliphate, Uthman ibn Affan (ra) made a decision that shaped the way Muslims have calculated zakat ever since.

He saw that the state tracking people’s private wealth caused hardship on the Ummah and harm to its owners. So he made a distinction.

The state would collect zakat on visible wealth like livestock and crops, but the zakat on a Muslim’s private wealth (gold, silver, and trade goods) would be on the individual to calculate and pay.

Since then, calculating zakat on private wealth has been left to the individual.

Today, our wealth takes many forms. Currency, gold, jewelry, investments, businesses. Over the last century, things got more complex. Much of our wealth now sits in registered accounts governed by Canadian tax law. Scholars differ on how to handle these, and the same asset can produce very different zakat amounts depending on who you follow.

But the core requirement remains the same as it has since Uthman’s time. We have to determine our zakat as individuals.

Last Ramadan, I launched ZakatView to help Canadian Muslims work through their zakat, account by account.

Since then, I've taken it a step further. The goal was to build a tool that was comprehensive enough for the most detailed cases, but simple enough for a first-time zakat payer to understand the process.

At each step, you see the scholarly positions that apply and what they mean. By the end, you understand what applies to you, and you’ll have a coherent method to calculate year over year, insha'Allah.

ZakatView 2.0 is live, alhamdulillah.

The calculator is free. You can do a full, comprehensive zakat calculation and understand every position you’re taking, all at no cost.

If you’d like to save your calculation and access advanced features like deferred zakat tracking, calculation history, and payments toward your zakat, there’s a small annual fee.

You’ll be hearing more about ZakatView and some of its features over the next couple of weeks, insha’Allah. But for now, here it is.

My hope is that this brings some clarity to your zakat calculation this year. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Calculate Your Zakat: ZakatView.co​

Wasalam,