Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c8.s4.7

c8.s4.7

Zakat was perhaps the most difficult to assess and still more difficult to realize. It was levied on "apparent property". Now, we know that in the medieval times people used to hide their possessions lest the sultan should come to know of their wealth. Zakat could not be realized forcibly since "compulsion-vitiates its character". Again, it could only be applied to a property held in possession by the owner for at least one year.¹⁵² If a person just to avoid payment transferred his taxable property to someone else including his own wife, even a day before the date of payment, he escaped from paying.¹⁵³ On the other hand pious Muslims sometimes paid Zakat in advance for two or three years.