Zakat on Silver in Ethiopia: 2026 Guide for Ethiopian Muslims

Yes. Silver above the Nisab (595 g / ~20 mithqal / ~52.5 tola) is Zakatable at 2.5% each lunar year. Silver is treated identically to cash and gold for Zakat purposes; the only variable is which Nisab benchmark you use to determine liability on other assets.

The gold and silver Nisabs were of roughly equal value at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Today, silver is much cheaper, so the silver Nisab represents a much lower cash threshold. Using it as the benchmark means more of the surplus wealth of the wealthy is captured by Zakat and reaches the poor. Most fatwa councils (UK NZF, ISNA, AMJA, LZS Malaysia, BAZNAS Indonesia) recommend the silver benchmark for cash and mixed portfolios.

Weigh your silver in grams. Multiply by the fineness factor (925 sterling = 0.925; 999 fine = 0.999). Multiply the pure-silver mass by today’s spot price in ETB per gram. Apply 2.5%. Our calculator does this automatically once you enter grams and fineness.

Silver bars, coins and investment ingots are always Zakatable. Silver flatware and household serving items are disputed: Hanafi treats them as Zakatable, the other three schools exempt items in actual daily household use up to reasonable custom. Silver kept in a safe as a hedge against inflation is always Zakatable regardless of madhhab.

Open the Zakat calculator and pick Ethiopia as your country. It applies the Shafi’i defaults, converts the Nisab benchmark to ETB live and computes Zakat on silver alongside your other assets — with a downloadable Hijri-dated certificate.