Pearl (lu'lu'), fiqh rulings

Lu'lu' is the pearl, a hard, bright, round deposit formed in certain marine molluscs; its plural is lali ¹.

Most jurists hold that pearls and other gems carry no zakat, even if worth thousands, since they are kept for use; if they are held for trade, the rule for trade goods applies ². The sounder Hanbali view, according to Ibn Qudama, is that nothing is due, since it is game and there is neither text nor consensus requiring zakat on it; al-Zuhri held a fifth due, and a Hanbali report holds zakat due, as on the produce of mines ².

Pearls may not be used in the stoning of the jamarat, since the stones must be of the earth and must be stones, and stoning with pearls honours rather than abases, as the Hanafis say ².

The Hanafis and Shafi'is do not allow salam in things whose required description is rare, such as large pearls and rubies, since their size, shape, weight and clarity are hard to fix; small pearls may be ordered by measure or weight. The Malikis allow it unless the size is unusually large. The Hanbalis do not allow salam in pearls at all, since they cannot be fixed, like all gems ².

The Hanafis: a pearl found in a shell belongs to the buyer; if not in a shell and the seller caught the fish, the fish is returned to him and held as a found item; a pearl found in a hen belongs to the seller ³. The Malikis: if the pearl is pierced it is a found item with its place given to the treasury, otherwise it belongs to the seller, the sounder view ³. The Shafi'is: the pearl does not pass with the sale but belongs to the fisherman, unless it bears marks of ownership, as a bore hole, in which case it is found property ³. The Hanbalis: if caught at sea and an unpierced pearl is found, it belongs to the catcher, and if he sold it without knowing, it returns to him; a pierced or gilded pearl, or one caught in a spring or a river not joined to the sea, is found property ^{3 4}.

The Hanafis, in the sounder view, forbid men to wear pearls as women's adornment; the Shafi'is, as reported by al-Ramli, dislike it for the same reason; the Hanbalis permit men to adorn themselves with pearls, rubies and similar gems ⁴.