Dear respected Shaykh, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. What is the nisab for money? What is the ruling of giving Zakat to one’s parents? ما هو نصاب النقود في الزكاة؟ وما حكم إعطائها للوالدين؟

Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As to what follows: In response to your question, we say: Based on the correct opinion of the scholars, if the parent’s expenditure is not compulsory on the son, and he can only cover his needs,  but he has some money  for Zakat, and his father is needy and needs help, and he is from the recipients of Zakat, then I say, “Give him the Zakat. This is better than giving it to someone else, because the father is more deserving of kindness than anyone else. “ If a person says, “But this is my father and it is compulsory for me to provide for his expenses”, I will say, “You cannot afford his expenditure, so if you cannot afford to cover his expenses but you have some Zakat, give it to your father”. These two conditions must be taken into consideration. As for the nisab of money; some scholars calculate it on silver, while others calculate it on gold. The preponderant opinion is that you should calculate it on gold, and Zakat is due on eighty-five grams of gold. Therefore, when the money that you have reaches the value of eighty-five grams then Zakat is compulsory on your money whether you possess dinars, riyals, dollars, pounds or any other currency.   How do you know the value of gold? You go and ask the goldsmith the value of one gram of gold, and base your calculations on that.