#609: Can I give Zakātul Fitr on behalf of my Distant Parents?
QUESTION
” A questioner ask : @admin assalaamu’alykum pls my parent give me money to do zakatul fitr on behave of the whole family because their is no poor people in the area in which they stay is this permissible…. secondly if it is permissible is there any intention to make lyk mentioning each person name when removing saa for that person.”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
If there are no needy persons in the community wherein lives your parents, it is permissible that they give their Zakātu Al-Fitr to other people in the privileged places where it is direly needed.
As for Monetary equivalent of the Zakāt Al-Fitr, then the majority of the Fuqahā from the Mālikī, the Shāfi’ī and the Hanbalī schools hold that it were not permissible to give the Zakātu Al-Fitr with cash equivalent of the grain measure that is the due. Imam Abū Hanīfah and some of the Stallions of his Madh’hab held that money equivalent is ok.
Most recently, there has been different positions taken by contemporary Ulama in this regard but there is no doubt that that which is stronger and safer in approach for the one who believes in Allāh and the Last Day and is careful about his Dīn is to give out grains and not cash equivalent, and Allāh knows best.
With respect to the intentions, then there is no wording for an intention as agreed by the ‘Ulamā from all of the Schools.
The matter of uttering the Niyyah mandatorily on the tongue is an innovation that was made to creep into the Dīn in the later years when ignorance had become widespread. Therefore, it suffices for you to leave ‘intention’ as ‘Niyyah’ that is the concious aim of the mind.
And Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
29th Ramadān, 1439A.H.
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