A poor man borrowed money from me. Is it permissible for me to count this money as part of the zakah obligatory upon me?

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: A poor man owes me a sum of money. Is it permissible for me to count this money he owes me as part of the zakah obligatory upon me?

Answer:
No. They say it is not permissible to count a debt as zakah, because Allah commanded giving zakah, meaning paying it to the needy. Forgiving a debt is not giving zakah. In fact, some people, when they despair of recovering a debt and fear they will not get it back, make it zakah to protect their wealth. This is not permissible. The result is that it is not permissible to forgive a debt in place of zakah. However, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said it is permissible to forgive the zakah due on that debt, meaning only the zakah of that debt. But to forgive the debt in place of the zakah on the wealth in your hand, this is not permissible according to the consensus of all scholars. Yes.