Question
I have fifty million rupees deposited in Meezan Bank for seven years. My questions to Mr Javeed Ahmed Ghamidi follow:
a. Is this bank really working as per Sharī‘ah? They do not give fixed profit and claim that they do not invest our money in un-Islamic trades.
b. Do I have to pay the zakah on the original amount deposited and on the profit? Bank deducts 10% tax on my profit each month.
Answer
What Islamic banks earn for you comes from primarily two sources: leasing and murabahah. While leasing is right from the Shari’ah point of view, murabahah is not. Therefore, if you get a return from an Islamic bank, half of the income is okay and half of it is not.
If you have done an investment which bears returns to you, zakah has to be paid on the returns and not the original investment. Therefore, you have to pay zakah at the rate of ten percent on whatever returns you receive as and when they occur.
If the bank is already deducting 10% from your profit as tax, you don’t have to pay any more zakah on it.
Answered by: Dr. Khalid Zaheer
Date: 2015-03-05
