Agricultural Nisab Measurement for Zakat Assessment

Zakat, the third pillar of Islam is intended to manage the social wealth, obligatory
for the rich and distributed to the needy. Among the wealth is the agricultural produce that
are due for zakat in each cropping season, either 5% or 10% of the crops. Yet, the crops must
reach a certain amount to be zakatable, known as nisab which is obliged at 5 awsuq or 300
gantang Madinah. In January 1981, the Fatwa Committee Conference of the National
Council for Islamic Religious Affairs of Malaysia (Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan, MFK) decided
the nisab as 363 gantang Malaysia; and the use of metric system for related type of zakat
nisab is harus (allowed). This is following the enforcement of a new measurement system
effective in January 1981; the International System of Units (SI); resulting in the traditional
volume measures being prohibited for trade. A new culture emerged; agricultural produce is
no longer traded by measuring (its volume) but by weighing its weight (kilogram). This led
to some issues in conversion the nisab from the traditional to the SI unit. States in Malaysia
decided the agricultural nisab differently without realizing that gantang and traditional
measures have been obsolete. This paper recommended the appropriate SI unit and
conversion for both agricultural nisab and gantang; which will help standardize the nisab in
Malaysia. To adapt the SI unit to the current practice of agricultural produce trading, the
application of density cup with simplified equations are introduced in the assessment of
agricultural nisab and zakat