Aoa, i have around 300grams of gold which i dont wear at all and have to give zakaat every year. I have three children. If i give each child 70 grams which will be a total of 210 grams and keep 70 grams for myself, selling the rest, do I still have to give zakaat on the gold i have given my children? I understand that everything depends on the persons niyaah. My main intention is not that i dont want to give zakaat, but I dont want to keep selling this gold for giving zakaat and then not have anything for my daughters by the time they are getting married. Please help me in this regard, i dont want to sell the gold either because i would still be giving zakat on the money. I just want to gift it to my children with the intention of never wearing it myself. I am under a lot of stress, i hope i get an answer soon. JazakAllah khair!

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We think that the matter is easy and it does not require all this stress. It is permissible for you to dispose of your wealth by gifting it and the like, and there is no Zakat on you in this money if it is less than the Nisaab (minimum amount liable for Zakat) before a whole lunar year is completed as long as you did not intend to avoid paying Zakat.

Al-Qurtubi said in his Tafseer:

“The scholars unanimously agreed that a man is entitled to dispose of his wealth by selling it or gifting it, if he did not intend to avoid paying Zakat. They also agreed that if a whole lunar year has elapsed while his wealth is in his possession, it is not permissible for him to trick or to decrease from it.” [End of quote]

There is nothing wrong with you to gift every one of your children from this gold, but you should be just between them when gifting them [i.e. you should gift them equally the same amount]. So if you make each one your three children own 70 grams of gold and it came out of your possession, then this is a valid gift.

But this amount –we mean the share of each of them –is not liable for Zakat because it is less than the Nisaab. The Nisaab for gold is 85 grams or more. This is provided that each one of them does not have other wealth, in a way that if it is added to her share of gold, it reaches the Nisaab, and when a whole lunar year elapses on it, then she should pay Zakat on it along with her wealth.

For more benefit on Zakat on jewelry, please refer to Fataawa 89106 and 87362.

Allah knows best.