according to its amount (8). If it is a nisaab (minimum taxable amount) with no surplus, then there is no Zakah on it for the time after the first year, because the nisaab has decreased therein. If it is more than a nisaab, he should set aside the amount of the obligation for the first year, and he is liable for the Zakah on what remains. This is the explicit statement from Ahmad in a report by a group of his companions. He said, in a report by Muhammad ibn al-Hakam: If there are forty sheep and the collector (musaddiq) does not come to him for two years, when the collector takes one sheep, he has no further obligation on the remainder; there is a difference of opinion regarding this. He also said, in a report by Salih: If a man has two hundred dirhams and does not pay their Zakah until another year passes over them, he pays Zakah for the first year, because this becomes two hundred minus five dirhams. Regarding a man who has one thousand dirhams and does not pay their Zakah for several years: he pays twenty-five [dirhams] for the first year, then for every year according to what remains. This is the view of Malik, Al-Shafi'i, and Abu Ubayd. If he has forty sheep and a lamb is born every year, he is obligated to pay one sheep every year because the nisaab is completed by the newly born lamb. If the birth of the lamb occurred some time after the Zakah became obligatory upon him, the second year is started from the time it was born, because that is when it was completed.

Section: If he owns five camels and does not pay their Zakah for several years, he is obligated to pay one sheep for every year. Ahmad stated this in a report by Al-Athram. He said in the report of Al-Athram: Wealth other than camels—if paid from the camels—does not decrease, and the five remains intact. Likewise, what is less than twenty-five camels, its Zakah does not decrease for the time after the first year, because the obligation is due from other than the camels themselves, so it is not possible for it to attach to the physical asset. Al-Shafi'i has two views: One of them is that its Zakah decreases, like all other forms of wealth. Thus, if (9) he has five camels and years pass over them, he is not obligated (10) for them except for one sheep, because they decreased due to the obligation of Zakah upon them in the first year.