year. Our position is that this wealth is in the same state across all years, so it must be equal in terms of the obligation of Zakat or its absence, just like other types of wealth. There is no difference between the debtor denying it overtly while acknowledging it internally, or denying it in both aspects.

Section: The apparent import of Ahmad’s statement is that there is no difference between a current (immediate) debt and a deferred one, because a release of obligation (ibra') is valid for a deferred debt. If it were not owned, the release of obligation would not be valid for it. However, it is in the status of a debt owed by an insolvent person, because it is not possible to collect it immediately.

Section: If one rents out his house for two years for forty dinars, he owns the rent from the time of the contract, and he is obligated to pay Zakat on all of it when a year passes over it; because the ownership of the lessor is complete, as evidenced by the permissibility of exercising various types of discretion over it. If it were a slave girl, he would have the right to have intercourse with her. The fact that it is subject to potential return due to the dissolution of the contract does not prevent the obligation of Zakat, just like the dower (sadaq) before consummation. Then, if he has collected the rent, he pays Zakat on it, and if it is a debt, it is like any other debt, whether immediate or deferred. Malik and Abu Hanifah said: He does not pay Zakat on it until he collects it and a year passes over it, based on the principle that the rent is not earned by the contract, but rather it is earned by the passage of the rental period. This will be discussed in its proper place, if Allah the Almighty wills. There is another narration from Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, regarding someone who collects a threshold (nisab) amount from real estate rent, that he pays Zakat on it immediately. We have mentioned this in a place other than this one, and we interpreted it as meaning that a year had passed over it before he collected it.

Section: If one buys something for twenty dinars, or pays a capital sum (in a salam contract) for something, and a year passes before the buyer takes possession of the sold item, or takes possession of the goods for which the capital was paid while the contract remains, then the obligation of the Zakat on the price lies upon the seller and the one to whom the capital was paid; because his ownership remains established in it. If the contract is dissolved due to the destruction of the sold item, or the impossibility of delivering the goods for which the capital was paid, the price must be returned, and its Zakat is upon the seller.