Ruling on the zakah of money saved to pay off debts
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Q55: The questioner says: I have a sum of money saved, which is ten thousand and five hundred riyals, that I have accumulated over several years. Is there zakah due on this amount I have saved? If the answer is yes, what is the amount of obligatory zakah due on this money? And if I pay the zakah from the money, is it permissible for me to give it to my mother and my sister, since they are poor?
A55: If this money you are saving in cash reaches the nisab,
and a lunar year has passed over it, then zakah is due on it: one-quarter of one-tenth for each year. If you are saving it to pay off a debt or for a pressing need, zakah is obligatory on it upon the completion of the year and the reaching of the nisab. Zakah is a debt in your liability to Allah (Mighty and Majestic):[Adh-Dhariyat 51:19]. So you must pay out one-quarter of one-tenth for each year from this money you have accumulated, even if you intend to use it to pay off your debt. However, if you pay off your debt with it before the completion of the lunar year, or if it falls below the nisab before the completion of the lunar year, then nothing is due on it. It is not permissible for you to give your zakah to your mother or your father, nor to your grandfather or grandmother, nor to your children, however far down the line. It is not permissible to give zakah to one’s direct ascendants or descendants. As for giving it to a sister, if she is poor and does not have a husband who provides for her, then there is nothing wrong with that.
A55: If this money you are saving in cash reaches the nisab,
and a lunar year has passed over it, then zakah is due on it: one-quarter of one-tenth for each year. If you are saving it to pay off a debt or for a pressing need, zakah is obligatory on it upon the completion of the year and the reaching of the nisab. Zakah is a debt in your liability to Allah (Mighty and Majestic):
And from their properties was [given] the right of the [needy] petitioner and the deprived.
وَفِي أَمْوَالِهِمْ حَقٌّ لِلسَّائِلِ وَالْمَحْرُومِ
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.