7.2 Zakat, Ushar & Inheritance Calculations

Zakat, Ushar & Inheritance Calculations

The NTS Arithmetic block ends with a phrase that no international aptitude syllabus contains: "Zakat, Ushar and Inheritance." It is the most distinctively Pakistani item on the GAT General, and it is routinely absent from prep material recycled from GRE sources. The mathematics is straightforward percentage-and-fraction work; what you need is the correct rate, the correct threshold, and the correct order of operations.

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Zakat: The One-Fortieth Rule

Rate: 2.5% of zakatable wealth, which is the same as one-fortieth:

$\text{Zakat} = \text{Zakatable wealth} \times \frac{2.5}{100} = \frac{\text{Zakatable wealth}}{40}$

Dividing by 40 is faster than multiplying by 0.025 under time pressure, and it eliminates decimal-place slips.

Two conditions must both hold before any Zakat is due:

1. Nisab — wealth must reach a minimum threshold.
2. Hawl — that wealth must have been held for one full lunar (Hijri) year.

Nisab as the Statute Defines It

The Zakat and Ushr Ordinance, 1980 defines nisab as 612.32 grams of silver, or its value in cash, gold, or trade goods; where a person's zakatable assets consist only of gold, the threshold is 87.48 grams of gold. The equivalent traditional weights are 52.5 tola of silver and 7.5 tola of gold, and most charitable calculators quote the silver figure as 612.36 grams. The rupee value is notified for each Zakat year, because it tracks the market price of the metal.

Worked Zakat Calculation

A candidate has held the following for a full lunar year: Rs. 480,000 in a savings account, gold jewellery worth Rs. 250,000, and trade stock worth Rs. 170,000. He owes a supplier Rs. 60,000 due immediately.

$\text{Zakatable base} = 480000 + 250000 + 170000 - 60000 = 840{,}000$ $\text{Zakat} = \frac{840000}{40} = \text{Rs. }21{,}000$

Immediate liabilities are deducted before the rate is applied; a fixed asset such as a residential house or a personal vehicle is not part of the base at all.

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Ushar: Agricultural Produce

Ushr literally means one-tenth. Classical fiqh applies two rates:

The reasoning is that artificial irrigation costs the farmer money and labour, so the levy is halved.

Under Pakistani statute, however, the compulsory levy is a single rate. Section 5 of the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance, 1980 charges Ushr "at the rate of five per cent of his share of the produce" from every land-owner, grantee, allottee, lessee, lease-holder or land-holder who is sahib-e-nisab. The Ordinance exempts a producer whose output is less than five wasqs, stated in the statute as 948 kilograms of wheat, or the equivalent value in other crops, and also exempts anyone who is himself eligible under Shariah to receive Zakat. Following the Eighteenth Amendment, the provinces re-enacted the scheme in their own Acts, retaining the 5% rate.

Worked Ushr Calculation

A landholder harvests 40,000 kilograms of wheat from irrigated land and sells it at Rs. 95 per kilogram.

$\text{Gross value} = 40000 \times 95 = \text{Rs. }3{,}800{,}000$ $\text{Ushr at }5\% = 3800000 \times 0.05 = \text{Rs. }190{,}000$

Note that Ushr is charged on gross produce, not on profit after expenses — the Ordinance defines produce as gross agricultural, horticultural or forest produce. Deducting cultivation costs first is the standard error.

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Inheritance: Fixed Shares, Then Residue

GAT inheritance items are fraction arithmetic on an estate. The method has two stages.

Stage 1 — allocate the fixed Quranic shares.

Stage 2 — distribute the residue. Sons and daughters take what remains, with each son receiving twice a daughter's portion. Convert this into parts: with $s$ sons and $d$ daughters the residue is divided into $2s + d$ equal parts.

Worked Example 1 — Widow, Sons and Daughters

An estate of Rs. 4,800,000 is left by a man survived by his widow, two sons and three daughters.

Stage 1: the widow's share, with children present, is one-eighth.

$\text{Widow} = \frac{1}{8}\times 4800000 = \text{Rs. }600{,}000$

Stage 2: residue $= 4800000 - 600000 = 4{,}200{,}000$. Parts $= (2\times 2) + 3 = 7$.

$\text{One part} = \frac{4200000}{7} = 600{,}000$

• Each son: $2 \times 600000 = \text{Rs. }1{,}200{,}000$
• Each daughter: $\text{Rs. }600{,}000$

Check: $600000 + (2\times 1200000) + (3\times 600000) = 600000 + 2400000 + 1800000 = 4{,}800{,}000$. ✓

Worked Example 2 — Husband, Mother and Two Daughters

An estate of Rs. 1,440,000 is left by a woman survived by her husband, her mother, and two daughters.

Sum of fractions: $\frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{6} + \frac{2}{3} = \frac{3 + 2 + 8}{12} = \frac{13}{12}$. The shares exceed the estate, a situation the jurists call awl: every share is scaled down proportionally by using the total 13 as the denominator.

$\text{Husband} = \frac{3}{13}\times 1440000 \approx \text{Rs. }332{,}308 \qquad \text{Mother} = \frac{2}{13}\times 1440000 \approx \text{Rs. }221{,}538$ $\text{Daughters together} = \frac{8}{13}\times 1440000 \approx \text{Rs. }886{,}154$

Exam routine: add the fixed fractions first. If they sum to less than 1, the remainder is residue for the children in 2:1 parts. If they sum to more than 1, rescale using the numerator total as the new denominator. Deciding which case you are in before computing anything prevents the most expensive mistake on this topic.