In your form, S5 is defined to be equal to minimum of S3 and S4. It is claimed that S5 represents the savings kept throughout the year in question. To take an extreme example though, what if the savings were below both S3 and S4 for most of the year (recovering to finish at S4 in the final week of the year say)?
Answer:
The example you have given has been thought out by us. We also pondered about the converse case, which is: a high savings was kept throughout most of the year, and then dropping to S4 during the final weeks. In your example, it would appear that the zakat payer is paying extra zakat while in my example, it would appear that the zakat payer is giving less zakat and thus the poor is being deprived of their due share.
The underlying principle of the shari‟a on savings is that once the wealth is acquired and it has been kept for one lunar year, then at that time zakat is due on it. If one were to literally use this principle, then he (or she) will have to keep track of his wealth and savings every day of the year and keep on calculating and giving zakat throughout the year. That is impracticable, and anything that is impracticable cannot be the intent of the shari‟a. Therefore, we have tried to use some standard methods to calculate zakat in a useful and practical way while staying close the shari‟a. If we have to consider all unlikely situations and have them reflected on the form, then that form will be so complex as to render it almost useless.
I have heard of an opinion where zakat is calculated based on the average balance that was kept throughout the year. This I think is further away from the above shari‟a principle then is closer, not to mention the difficulty in calculating the daily averages. Another opinion I heard is of using the lowest balance that one had in the year. This would clearly result in calculating less zakat and thus deprive the poor from their due share. Therefore, this is unacceptable.
Allah knows best.
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