Exploring the Nexus between Zakat, Gold, and Silver: A Review of Scholarly Contributions

Zakat plays a fundamental role in wealth redistribution and social equity, with gold and silver holding central significance as benchmarks of wealth across Islamic history. This study explores both traditional and contemporary interpretations of zakat, focusing on how these metals have functioned as stable currencies, ensuring economic stability and serving as wealth purifiers. While classical scholarship emphasizes their importance, this research addresses the evolving challenges posed by modern financial innovations, such as digital gold, online gold storage, and gold-backed cryptocurrencies. These emerging assets introduce complexities like volatility, liquidity constraints, and the absence of standardized valuation frameworks, which challenge the application of traditional zakat principles. Through a comprehensive literature review, this study uncovers gaps in research related to zakat on digital financial assets, highlighting the need for clearer guidelines and updated jurisprudential rulings. It synthesizes both qualitative juristic analyses and quantitative insights into asset volatility to evaluate the applicability of zakat to these modern instruments. A comprehensive literature review identifies existing scholarly discussions on zakat for traditional wealth forms like gold and silver and examines the gap in research concerning digital financial assets. The review highlights divergent views within the Islamic scholarly community on the permissibility of cryptocurrencies for zakat, with calls for new fatwas and clearer regulations. This research underscores the importance of aligning zakat frameworks with modern financial realities to ensure their continued relevance. It suggests that Islamic finance institutions should develop secure platforms tailored for digital asset zakat collection, alongside formulating standardized valuation guidelines and engaging in public awareness campaigns. This study contributes to the evolving discourse on Islamic finance by addressing the regulatory and methodological gaps in zakat application to digital assets. Addressing these challenges could provides valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners navigating the complexities of applying zakat in an increasingly digitized economy.