Zakat and Fasting in the Hanbali School

The Hanbali school's treatment of zakah and fasting follows its general methodology of close adherence to the prophetic texts, with particular attention to the hadiths preserved in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad alongside the six canonical collections.

On zakah, the Hanbali school covers the same five categories as the other schools (monetary wealth, trade goods, livestock, and agricultural produce) with several distinctive positions. On the question of zakah on jewelry, the Hanbali school holds that zakah is obligatory on gold and silver jewelry that is held for use or for loan — a more expansive position than the Shafi'i and Maliki schools, which generally exempt jewelry held for personal use. This Hanbali ruling derives from hadiths showing the Prophet commanding zakah on ornaments worn by women who had not paid it.

The nisab for trade goods in the Hanbali school is assessed against the gold nisab (twenty mithqals, approximately 85 grams), not the silver nisab as the Shafi'i school typically uses. Since the gold nisab is worth considerably more than the silver nisab in modern currency equivalents, this produces significantly different obligations in practice. The school follows the principle that using the gold standard better reflects the intent of the prophetic texts, which establish gold as the primary monetary standard.

On livestock zakah, the Hanbali school follows the detailed tables established by the Prophet's zakah instruction letters: camels (one sheep at five; rising in increments), cattle (one yearling at thirty; one two-year-old at forty), and sheep and goats (one at forty). The Hanbali school extends zakah obligations to cattle grazed jointly by multiple owners who have pooled resources — a question of some complexity that the school resolves by treating jointly grazed livestock as a single herd for nisab purposes while dividing the obligation proportionally.

The chapter on sawm in the Hanbali school is detailed and follows Imam Ahmad's careful collection of the prophetic hadiths on fasting. The intention for Ramadan fasting must be made before Fajr — the school agrees with the Shafi'i and Hanafi schools on this against the Maliki allowance of a daytime intention for the Ramadan fast if one had forgotten to make it the night before.

The Hanbali school includes among the acts that break the fast the deliberate drawing of blood through cupping (hijama) — a position based on the authentic hadith 'The cupper and the one being cupped have broken their fast' (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, authenticated by al-Albani). The majority of scholars (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i) hold this hadith to be abrogated by later evidence showing the Prophet had himself cupped while fasting, but the Hanbali school maintains the earlier prohibition. This is one of the more well-known Hanbali distinctions in fasting law.

The Hanbali school's Ramadan observance includes particular emphasis on the Tarawih prayer in congregation, following the practice established by Umar ibn al-Khattab that the Prophet had himself inaugurated before leaving it lest it become obligatory. The recommended number of rak'ahs for Tarawih is debated within the school, with some holding to eight and others to twenty — the school acknowledges both as established practice and does not restrict one as incorrect.