When Does The Student Loan Affect One’s Nisab?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

If someone took out a student loan, as the money does not enter his bank account when one organisation pays it to the other in fixed amounts, what does that mean for calculating the Zakat and seeing if one reached Nisab?

Answer

I pray you are well.

Student loans, in their current form, are impermissible. Please refer to this for more details:
Are Student Loans Like An Investment, And So Permissible?

If someone did end up with one, then, for the purposes of calculating zakat, it would only affect his nisab once he has possession of the money from a particular instalment. At that point, he would look to see if it took him over the nisab threshold and then calculate his zakat appropriately.

Given that it is a debt that the loans company does not demand back immediately, or even within the year, the load cannot be deducted from your assets when calculating zakat. [Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar]

Try and get a part-time job to finance yourself. It’s much better than borrowing money that will land you in major sin. “Indeed, you won’t leave something for Allah except that Allah will replace it with something better than it.“ [Ahmad]

May Allah facilitate matters for you.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began his studies in Arabic Grammar and Morphology in 2005. After graduating with a degree in English and History he moved to Damascus in 2007 where, for 18 months, he studied with many erudite scholars. In late 2008 he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continued his studies for the next six years in Sacred Law (fiqh), legal theory (Usul al-fiqh), theology, hadith methodology, hadith commentary, and Logic. He was also given licenses of mastery in the science of Quranic recital and he was able to study an extensive curriculum of Quranic sciences, tafsir, Arabic grammar, and Arabic eloquence.