Zakat on merchandise

Question

We have our own printing press: we print our own books and also do other people’s work for a fee. When the bills for the sale of books and for printing are collected, money comes in. We buy the paper and the like ourselves, and a stock of it stays with us, but of it only what is left over from printing remains. In the bookshop a stock of books is kept. The money mentioned above is partly spent on construction works, and there are some personal expenses.

Answer

You have written that the amount of goods that remains is much less than the debt you owe to people for paper and the like. Does “goods” here mean the money, or all the merchandise? If the money is meant, then add this money to all the merchandise and see whether this total is more than the total of the debt, or equal to it, or less.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.