Zakaah on Gold and Diamond Jewelry
25-2-2003 | IslamWeb
Question:
I have some jewlery in gold and Diamonds when we were wealthy this was the amount of jewlery that ladies in my level in my community wore. Now we can not pay our rent or buy bread. My husband, after working in his own great business is working in the lowest catagories of work at someone busine for a low salary. My question is : I can not pay ( Zakat al zahab ) for my jewelry. I already sold a lot of it worth 25000 Egyptian pounds for 1700 and my husband refuses to sell any more, so things may get worse. It's a big loss and it's not not enough for any thing. We acceped Zakah last Ramadan men so we can feed our kids ...I am have 4 kids. Do we deserve Zakat al mouslemin even if we still have some gold jewelery?How can we pay Zakat for our gold if we can not feed our kidsand selling them won't help even for paying our dets, because we also have some enormous debts?
Answer:
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.
Zakaah is not due on diamonds and jewelry that are used as ornaments of a woman. All the Muslim scholars are agreed upon this fact. Ibn Qudaamah 
wrote in his book al-Mughni: “There is no Zakaah on jewelry of woman since no scholars believe that.”
On the other hand, are the ornaments of gold and silver subject to Zakaah or not? Muslim scholars have different opinions. According to the majority of Muslim scholars, Zakaah is not due on golden and silver ornaments. So, you are not obliged to pay the Zakaah on ornaments regardless of their cost.
Moreover, if the income of your husband is not sufficient to satisfy your family needs, such as housing, food, clothes, and other expenditures, then he is eligible to receive Zakaah from others. It is also permissible for your husband to take Zakaah even if you are rich to spend on himself and on his family members. He is not considered rich if his wife is rich since she is not responsible to spend on her husband.
For more benefit on Zakaah on gold jewelry worn by women, please refer to Fataawa 82925, 81703, 83665, and 81677.
Allah knows best.