Q: …. I used to send money to my father in Egypt when I have some money and he keeps it in my bank account in Egypt. I want to buy a house for my family. Mistakenly I was told that money which is not for investment or business has no zakat on it. This is why after 8 years now I have about $ 50,000. By the way this money includes the fawaed that the bank adds every year.I paid yesterday 2.5 % of this money to Eqra.What should I do with the beginning?

A: If you are the malik (owner) of the wealth and have control of it, the following would apply:

You would have to back track through financial statements of each of the years that money was placed into your account. If the first year 10,000 was placed into it and remained as such for an entire year, then deduct the zakat amount related to it, this would be the zakat for the first year. Second year zakah would be calculated on (as it seems in your case) 10,000 plus the added about amount. This process would continue until you’re current. Financial statements would make this easy for you to calculate.

Let’s use a scenario to illustrate how this would be done:

Year 1: Total in bank account is 10 000 at end of year. Zakat amount: 250

Year 2: Total in bank account is 5 000 at end of year (money went down due to you, perhaps, gifting a portion of it to a brother, or your expenses went up). Zakat amount: 125

Year 3: Total in bank account is 20 000 at end of year. Zakat amount: 500

Add zakat of years one, two and three, and you only pay $875 for these three years on the total 20 000 at hand.

The interest placed into it for each year would be deducted for each year. This interest money can be given to a poor person without intention of reward. Muslims cannot use riba. If this amount placed into your account is part of a business deal, then in such a situation, merely add this to the total as well. (to us in seems like interest (riba) and it cannot be used by you.

Any money paid as zakah to a legitimate zakah authority that used this money in the correct place(s) (the poor and its appropriate places) could be deducted from the total zakah that you are to give from the total of eight years.

Allah Certainly Knows Best.

p.s. Above response is similar to the ones that had money placed in 401K plans and have not paid their zakat on it in years. Also, should you not be able to gain access to your financial statements, send us as email, and we shall restructure this given response. I honestly do not think this c/would be the case.