Sanah (the year) and its legal uses

In language and in the technical sense sanah means a full year; where the jurists use the word without qualification they mean the lunar year. ¹

Lexicographers hold that 'am is narrower than sanah: every 'am is a sanah, but not every sanah is an 'am, since an 'am is a winter and a summer following one another. A shahr is the period between two crescents, a part of the lunar year, and it also names a known number of days. ^{1 2}

The solar year is fixed by the movement of the sun; the lunar year is fixed by the appearance and disappearance of the crescent. The two agree in the number of months and differ in days: the solar year exceeds the lunar by about eleven days. The Romans, Syriacs, Persians and Copts date their histories by solar years. ^{1 2}

By agreement of the jurists a full year over possession of the minimum amount is a condition for zakat on grazing livestock, on gold and silver, and on trade goods, on the basis of the hadith "no zakat on property until a year passes over it". ^{2 3} No haul is required for crops and fruit, on the basis of the verse in al-An'am (141), since they are taxed when harvested and then diminish rather than grow; minerals need no haul by agreement, and are taxed when extracted, except that minerals of the kind of currency are taxed each year. ² There is no dispute that one who owns the minimum amount of zakat property and has nothing else has his year begin when the minimum is reached. ² The full treatment is under zakat. ³

The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that found property must be announced for a full year; this is also reported from Muhammad among the Hanafis, and from Abu Hanifa for finds worth more than ten dirhams. ³ See the entry on lost property. ³

According to most jurists the judge grants an impotent husband a year, as Umar did, since the inability may come from heat, cold, dryness or moisture that passes with the seasons; if a year passes without consummation, it is taken as a congenital incapacity. ³ See the entries on postponement and impotence. ³

The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that an unmarried man guilty of fornication is exiled for a year at a distance that permits shortening prayer, in addition to the prescribed penalty. The Hanafis hold that exile is not part of the penalty, but allow the ruler to combine lashing and exile if he sees benefit. ³ See the entry on fornication and exile. ³