Zakah on mutual funds

How do you calculate the Zakah of mutual funds?

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Zakah is due on any individual, Muslim whose belongings reach the Nisab (minimum amount liable for Zakah) and provided he has had that Nisab for a lunar year.

As for the amount and belongings of associates, no Zakah is due on any member unless his own assets reach the Nisab by themselves or added to some of his other belongings like money and trade goods and provided a lunar year passes after he owned the Nisab.

But Al Shafi’e – in his new Madhab – believes that the belongings of the associates should be treated as though they belonged to one person.  This opinion is also reported from the Hanbalis.

So, if you give Zakah for the whole amount that will be safer and more certain.

However, the above rule does not apply for mutual ownership of cattle.

In fact, the majority of scholars are of the opinion that cattle should be regarded as the belonging of one person.  So as soon as it reaches Nisab and a lunar year passes, its Zakah should be paid regardless of the number of people who are partners in its ownership.  There are minor differences between scholars in some details concerning this rule.

Allah knows best.