He has a debt of 20,000 riyals, which he is paying off in installments. Is zakah obligatory on him before the debt is fully paid?
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I have a debt of twenty thousand riyals, which I am paying off in monthly installments. Is zakah obligatory on me before the debt is fully paid?
Answer:
The ruling currently issued is that a debt does not prevent zakah. You pay zakah on what you have; you pay zakah on the money in your hand if it reaches the nisab, even if you have a debt, it does not prevent it. Yes, this is the key. The school of thought says no, if the debt reduces the nisab, then there is no zakah in it, but the current ruling is contrary to that. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I have a debt of twenty thousand riyals, which I am paying off in monthly installments. Is zakah obligatory on me before the debt is fully paid?
Answer:
The ruling currently issued is that a debt does not prevent zakah. You pay zakah on what you have; you pay zakah on the money in your hand if it reaches the nisab, even if you have a debt, it does not prevent it. Yes, this is the key. The school of thought says no, if the debt reduces the nisab, then there is no zakah in it, but the current ruling is contrary to that. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [992 -3022] علي دين قدره ٢٠ ألف ريالا، أسدده على أقساط، فهل تجب علي الزكاة قبل سداد الدين كاملا؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.