The Nisab of Two Hundred Dirhams, Its Source and Its Indian Reckoning

Question

What is the nisab of zakat in silver? What is the basis of the well-known fifty-two and a half tolas (a unit of weight, ≈ 11.66 g) of silver? What is the weight of a dirham by which [exactly] fifty-two and a half tolas come out, and what is the source of this? And what is the nisab of the present-day rupee, in which there is only a little silver and mostly copper? Kindly write with references to books.

Answer

The nisab of silver is two hundred dirhams. Its basis is this hadith: [ar]لَيْسَ فِيمَا دُونَ خَمْسِ أَوَاقٍ صَدَقَةٌ، وَالْأُوقِيَّةُ أَرْبَعُونَ دِرْهَمًا[/ar] “There is no sadaqa on what is less than five uqiyas, and an uqiya is forty dirhams.” Imam al-Zayla‘i ﵀ has given the takhrij of this hadith from al-Bukhari and Muslim in Nasb al-Raya (vol. 2, p. 363).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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