i am trying to figure out what i owe in zakat.  i converted to islam, however, my father is a kaffir and he opened a bank account to save money for me in.  the money in the account is his and he may or may not give it to me in the future.  do i have to pay zakat on this money?  i cannot access the account — i cannot take any money from it and he will not give me money from it — in order to pay the zakat on it by using the money in it.

Praise be to
Allaah.

The
obligation of zakaah is subject to several conditions: 

Freedom:
zakaah is not obligatory upon a slave, because he has no property or
wealth. Whatever he owns is the property of his master, so the zakaah
is obligatory upon his master. 

Islam:
because the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, according to the hadeeth
of Mu’aadh (may Allaah be pleased with him): “Call them to testify that
there is no god except Allaah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allaah,” then he mentioned prayer, then he said: “and if they obey you
in that, then teach them that Allaah has enjoined upon them charity
(zakaah) to be taken from their rich and given to their poor.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, al-Zakaah, 1365; Muslim, al-Eemaan,
28). 

Owning the nisaab (minimum
amount or threshold): zakaah is not obligatory upon wealth or property
that does not meet the minimum amount, which is a known amount of wealth. 

Full
control: such that no one else has any rights to the wealth; there is
no zakaah on wealth that one does not own with full control. 

The
passing of one complete (hijri) year: because of the hadeeth of ‘Aa’ishah
(may Allaah be pleased with her), who said: “I heard the Messenger of
Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: ‘There is no zakaah
on wealth until one full year has passed.’” (Narrated by Ibn Maajah,
al-Zakaah, 1782; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh
Sunan Ibn Maajah, no. 1449). 

These
are the conditions for zakaah being obligatory; if these conditions
are met, then zakaah is obligatory. 

Based
on the above, it may be said that you do not possess the money, let
alone saying that you have full control over it. If you possess the
money and the other conditions are also met, then you should pay zakaah
on it. And Allaah knows best. 

For
more information on the conditions of zakaah, see al-Mulakhkhas al-Fiqhi
by al-Fawzaan, 1/221; al-Sharh al-Mumti’ by Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 6/22