What is the ruling on paying zakat al-fitr in money to associations?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
In our country, the value of zakat al-fitr is paid to associations, and then the associations distribute it as food. Is this sufficient or not?
Answer:
This is dangerous because the associations do not care about people's charity due to its large quantity and accumulation with them. This is an obligation in your trust, not in the trust of the associations. It is in your trust. It is obligatory for you to be certain that the zakat al-fitr reaches its recipients at the specified time.
And you should buy it yourself, because this is a righteous deed. You are the one who buys it, my brother. You are the one who measures it with the sa' or weighs it with the scale. You are the one who gives it to its recipient. All of these are righteous deeds. So how do you deprive yourself of this great reward and leave it for others to handle?
First of all, this is in your trust, and you do not clear your trust except by being certain that it reaches the recipients at the specified time. This is not guaranteed with the associations. You do not know about the associations; it is not one person, but the associations are several people and several employees, and I do not know if one person is responsible for managing it for you. So do not be negligent in this great obligation. Also, you pay them money, not food. This is also negligence. The money may be taken and put with the other money and placed in the boxes, and that is it.
Because they do not care about what is obligatory upon you. It is obligatory upon the Muslim to care about his own worship, to handle it himself, and to clear his trust of it with certainty. He should not be lazy, dependent, or incapable, relying on people. This is a matter the Muslim must be alert to. He should leave off laziness, leave off dependence, and clear his trust with certainty. Yes.
In our country, the value of zakat al-fitr is paid to associations, and then the associations distribute it as food. Is this sufficient or not?
Answer:
This is dangerous because the associations do not care about people's charity due to its large quantity and accumulation with them. This is an obligation in your trust, not in the trust of the associations. It is in your trust. It is obligatory for you to be certain that the zakat al-fitr reaches its recipients at the specified time.
And you should buy it yourself, because this is a righteous deed. You are the one who buys it, my brother. You are the one who measures it with the sa' or weighs it with the scale. You are the one who gives it to its recipient. All of these are righteous deeds. So how do you deprive yourself of this great reward and leave it for others to handle?
First of all, this is in your trust, and you do not clear your trust except by being certain that it reaches the recipients at the specified time. This is not guaranteed with the associations. You do not know about the associations; it is not one person, but the associations are several people and several employees, and I do not know if one person is responsible for managing it for you. So do not be negligent in this great obligation. Also, you pay them money, not food. This is also negligence. The money may be taken and put with the other money and placed in the boxes, and that is it.
Because they do not care about what is obligatory upon you. It is obligatory upon the Muslim to care about his own worship, to handle it himself, and to clear his trust of it with certainty. He should not be lazy, dependent, or incapable, relying on people. This is a matter the Muslim must be alert to. He should leave off laziness, leave off dependence, and clear his trust with certainty. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم إخراج زكاة الفطر مالا للجمعيات؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.