The Islamic legal rulings and procedures regarding Zakat on buried treasure are remarkably clear and explicit. Buried treasure refers to valuable items discovered purely by chance and without prior expectation, such as when a person digs their land, a well, or a garden plot for home construction. In ancient times, as there were no formal banks or safety deposit lockers, people routinely deposited their money and wealth inside pots and buried them deep within the earth for safekeeping. When owners passed away without disclosing these locations to anyone, those hidden items transformed across generations into buried treasure.
Because such unearthed treasures were often buried centuries ago, identifying their original owner is impossible; hence, the individual who finds the treasure is legally recognized as its rightful owner. Former landowners or their ancestors who sold the property have no right in Islamic law to come forward and lay claim by arguing that they were the original sellers of the land. Furthermore, unless a person happens to unearth historical artifacts specifically buried by their own immediate family, such as a father or grandfather, any treasure discovered on unfamiliar or general land belongs entirely to the finder.
Whenever gold, silver, jewelry, or any valuable object is accidentally discovered in this manner, the required Zakat due upon it must be paid immediately. In Arabic, such buried treasure is termed Rikaz (الرِّكَازُ). Sacred law fixes the Zakat rate for these treasures at one-fifth of the total value, known in Arabic as Al-Khums (الْخُمُسُ). In percentage terms, exactly twenty percent (20%) of the total value of the found treasure must be rendered as Zakat without delay.
Unlike other standard forms of wealth, there is no requirement to wait for the passage of a full lunar year (Hawl) before paying Zakat on treasure; Islamic scholars hold an unanimous consensus (Ijma) that one-fifth must be disbursed immediately upon discovery. For instance, if a treasure worth one hundred rupees is found, twenty rupees must be given as Zakat, and if a treasure worth one thousand rupees is found, two hundred rupees must be given as Zakat. Moreover, if local state legislation mandates that any discovered treasure must be reported immediately to the government, those legal laws must also be obeyed.
Under Islamic jurisprudence, once the one-fifth (20%) Zakat obligation is fulfilled from the unearthed treasure, the remaining four-fifths (80%) becomes completely Halal—a pure and lawful property—for the finder. Even if the treasure was uncovered on land or within a well that was purchased with one’s own money, the purchase applied only to the land itself and not to the hidden treasure within it. Nevertheless, upon disbursing the twenty percent Zakat dues, the remaining eighty percent belongs fully and legitimately to the finder.
Ultimately, whatever treasure is discovered on land, fields, or wells belonging to a person’s property is solely theirs, and previous sellers or third parties cannot make any claim upon it. In short, the definitive religious ruling concerning Zakat on treasure dictates that, excluding the twenty percent Zakat portion, the remaining eighty percent remains the full and exclusive right of the person who found it.