Q:
Concerning the payment of Zakah (obligatory charity), if a person
who is eligible to pay Zakah is indebted with a sum exceeding that
which they have at hand, should they pay Zakah from the available
money or not?
(Part
No. 14; Page No. 51)
A:
Anyone who has money that is subject to Zakah should pay it when a
Hawl (one lunar year calculated from the time a property reaches the
minimum amount upon which Zakah is due) passes, even if they are
indebted, according to the most authentic of the two scholarly opinions, for the
general evidence indicating the obligation of paying Zakah on
anyone who possesses money after a year has passed over it. Furthermore,
the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to command his Zakah officers to
collect Zakah from whoever is eligible to pay it, without ordering them to ask
a person whether or not they were indebted. Had debt prevented this, the
Prophet (peace be upon him) would have ordained them to ask those people if
they were indebted or not. Allah is the Source of success.
General
Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta’
~
Source:
https://www.alifta.net/Fatawa/FatawaChapters.aspx?languagename=en&View=Page&PageID=2528&PageNo=1&BookID=14
