#520: Ruling on giving One`s Zakāt to a Member of His Family
QUESTION
” Assalaamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh
May Allah bless your efforts Malam.
Please, I need answers to the following questions:
Can a man give zakat to his parents?
Can a wife gives zakat to her husband?
Can a daughter give zakat to her widowed mother?
Can a sister give zakat to her brother (blood) and vice versa?
Lastly, can a muslim man or woman give zakat to a christian needy and d poor? Jazakumullahu khayran”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
The Ulamā of Islām have formed a consensus that it is obligatory upon a man to spend of his wealth in support of the living of three categories of people; His Parents, his children, and his wives.
These are his Inheritors and those he has the immediate right to inherit in the absence of a Hājib (Screen).
The Hājib is the relative in whose presence (i.e. whose being alive) another relative is not allowed to inherit. Except that in the case of the Parents and the grown up children, it goes with the condition that they are needy and do not have the means to earn.
Imām Ibn Al-Mundhir – rahimahullāh – said:
“All of the People of Knowledge have formed a consensus that spending on the poor and needy parents who have no earnings nor money is obligatory from the wealth of the child.”
Ibn Qudāmah – rahimahullāh – said:
“The obligation of spending has been conditioned upon three things: that they are poor and have no wealth in their possession with which they may do without the spending of others upon them…”
And the Hanafis place upon them the condition that they are incapable of earning a living themselves.
This was mentioned by Al-Kasānī – rahimahullāh.
He made example with the maimed, the blind, the leper and the deaf.
As for the wives and the wife who has been divorced, the first or second divorce, and who is in her waiting period of ‘Iddah, then spending on her is compulsory and obligatory, whether she is needy or not, rich or not, poor or not.
And the Ulamā have formed a consensus that he is not obliged to spend on his parents if he cannot feed his wife.
But there is more to this matter that differs from situation to situation.
And it is not permissible to take it unrestrictedly and out of context.
And from Allāh help is sought.
As for the brothers and sisters, it is obligatory to spend upon them if they are in dire need according to the position of the Hanafis and the Hanbalis.
For they maintained that whomsoever may inherit in the absence of the Hājib also had the right of spending whenever he is in dire need.
For its reason, Ibn Qudāmah Al-Hanbalī – rahimahullāh – mentioned that in the Mughnī saying:
“What is apparent in the Madh’hab is that spending is obligatory upon everyone who is to be inherited for his inheritors if the conditions mentioned afore apply.”
Whereas the Shāfi’ī and Mālikī Schools considered it non obligatory.
Then, you may ask: what is the relationship between the Zakāt and the right of spending?
I say, and help is sought from Allāh:
The Ulamā have formed a consensus that it is not permissible for a person to give his Zakāt to anyone upon whom spending was obligatory on him. This is because in his doing so is as though giving the Zakāt to himself.
For its reason, Ibn Qudāmah quoted Ibn Al-Mundhir in the Mughnī to have said:
“The People of Knowledge have agreed that it is not permissible to give out the Zakāt to his parents in a situation where it was already obligatory upon him to spend on them. And this is because in his giving of the Zakāt to them is freeing himself from the compulsory spending and its benefit thereby returns to him. It is then as though he spent it upon himself. It isnt therefore permissible. It is like him using it to pay off his debt.”
The Ulamā explained that the only exemption here is if he is not capable of taking the burden of their spending.
And he fears that as the days go by, he won’t be able to do that.
Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah held this position though some ‘Ulamā disagreed with him.
That said, it then becomes apparent that a man may not give Zakāt to his parents.
A daughter may not give Zakāt to her widowed mother
A sister may not give Zakāt to her brother.
All based on the obligation of Spending (Nafaqah)
As for the Zakat of a wife to her husband, then the Ulamā hold two positions.
The Hanafis hold that it weren’t permissible and that if it were to be seen a situation where the husband was needy and she was wealthy, spending upon him by her was compulsory.
There is therefore no need to give her Zakāt to him.
The second position, and it is that held by the majority of the Ulamā, Imām Ash-Shāfi’ī, Mālik, Ath-Thawrī, the two foremost student of Abū Hanīfah, and a narration from Ahmad all held this second position.
That it were permissible.
Ibn Hazm said in the Muhallā:
“And a wife may give her Zakāt to her husband if he is of those that are deserving of it. It has been authentically reported from the Messenger of Allāh – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – that he gave edict to Zainab the wife of Ibn Mas’ud to do so.”
The incidence to which he referred is the Hadīth recorded by Imām Ahmad, Bukhārī and Muslim – Rahimahumullāh – from Zainab the wife of Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud – radiyallāhu anhum, When she went to the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – to ask if giving her Zakāt to her husband was OK for her.
The Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – answered to the affirmative.
The position favoured by the Majority is stronger and Allāh knows best.
As for Zakat to a Christian needy, then the position of the majority is that it were not permissible.
This was reprehensible to the Ulamā to such an extent that Ibn Qudāmah – rahimahullāh – mentioned in the Mughnī saying:
“We do not know any difference among the people of Ilm that Zakāt on wealth is not given to any Kāfir or to one who is a bondsman”
But the Ulamā have formed a precept that says:
عدم العلم ليس علم للعدم
“Ignorance of availability is not certainty of unavailability”
For the second position holds that it were permissible if the Kāfir were a Dhimmi who didn’t hate the Muslims and the Zakāt was given to soften his heart toward accepting Islām.
Al-Umrānī Ash-Shāfi’ī mentioned in Al-Bayānu Fī Madh’habi Ash-Shāfi’ī that it was the position held by Az-Zuhrī and Ibn Sīrīn.
The position of the minority mentioned later is very weak, because the Hadīth have established that when the Rasūl sent the Companion Abdullah bn ‘Abbās to Yemen, of what he said that he must teach them is:
“And teach them that Allāh has made Sadaqah from their wealth obligatory upon them. That it be taken from the wealthy among them and given to their Poor ones.”
This Hadīth is recorded in the Sahihayn
An-Nawawī in his Shar’h on Muslim said:
“And of it’s (lessons) is that Zakāt is not given to the Kafir”
Alhamdulillāh.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
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