The ruling on delaying the payment of zakah after it becomes due in order to seek out the needy
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, if the lunar year has passed over the wealth, is it necessary that the zakah be paid on that same day? If one delays it by a day or two or more for a benefit, such as giving it to a person one does not find except when traveling, is this permissible?
Answer:
The default is that the payment of zakah should be immediate, and it is permissible to delay it for one of the valid reasons, such as not having money at the present time, in which case one delays it until money comes to him, and there is no harm in that. Likewise, if the one entitled to it is not present, one waits for him until he arrives, provided there is an obstacle. If it is for a valid reason, there is no harm in delaying its payment.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, if the lunar year has passed over the wealth, is it necessary that the zakah be paid on that same day? If one delays it by a day or two or more for a benefit, such as giving it to a person one does not find except when traveling, is this permissible?
Answer:
The default is that the payment of zakah should be immediate, and it is permissible to delay it for one of the valid reasons, such as not having money at the present time, in which case one delays it until money comes to him, and there is no harm in that. Likewise, if the one entitled to it is not present, one waits for him until he arrives, provided there is an obstacle. If it is for a valid reason, there is no harm in delaying its payment.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 485- حكم تأخير إخراج الزكاة بعد حلولها من أجل تحري المحتاج|الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.