With regards to calculating the zakat, which app or website should we follow when seeking out the hijri date?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch 

 

Question Summary

With regards to calculating the zakat, which app or website should we follow when seeking out the Hijri date?

Question Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

It is common to find that different apps, websites, and even mosques have differences regarding stipulating the Hijri date. There are many reasons for this phenomenon.

The advice we have heard from some of our teachers is as follows:

It is ideal to follow whichever method your local community follows, whether that applies to the beginning and end of Ramadan, the days of ‘Eid, and, as in this case, the anniversary of one’s zakat.

Keeping track of the Hijri calendar is a communal obligation, and most mosques post the Hijri date on their prayer schedules. It is sufficient for you to follow your local mosque.

In the absence of that, you can follow any app or website you feel is led by competent and trustworthy scholars – and preferably based on local sightings, not merely calculations and projections of the moon’s cycle.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.