What is the ruling on appointing one who abandons prayer to pay the zakah?
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The questioner : A woman asks: My brother pays the zakah on our inherited wealth from our father every year, but he does not pray. Is his zakah accepted or not?
The Shaykh : It is not accepted from him. The one who does not pray, his zakah is not accepted, nor is his fasting, nor his Hajj, nor any good deed, due to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:[At-Tawbah 9:54] And the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever. If he is a disbeliever, nothing will be accepted from him. But the cure for this ailment is easy. What is the cure? That he prays. Praise be to Allah, if he prays, the reward for the good he has done returns to him, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to 'Amr ibn al-'As: Sahih Muslim 123a So it is said to this man: Fear Allah and do not obey Satan. Pray, and if you pray, everything will return to its place. So the matter is not difficult. What stands between him and his worship being accepted is only that he prays, so he returns to the Islam from which he exited. How? I did not ask. Ask the question again.
The questioner : A woman asks: Her brother pays the zakah on the wealth he inherited from his father after his death every year. Is the zakah he pays accepted or not?
The Shaykh : You heard that his zakah is not accepted. But it remains to be said: if this wealth is still shared among the heirs, it is not permissible for any of the heirs to take it upon himself to pay its zakah except by appointment. Listen, meaning, the wealth may be shared among the heirs and remain for a year or two without being divided, so it is not permissible for one of them to take it upon himself to pay the zakah from it unless he appoints someone. Unless he appoints someone, then he pays. But is it permissible for them to appoint one who has apostatized from Islam, which is the one who does not pray? It is not permissible for them to appoint him to pay an act of worship, of the most important of acts of worship.
The presenter : May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : It is not accepted from him. The one who does not pray, his zakah is not accepted, nor is his fasting, nor his Hajj, nor any good deed, due to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:
And what prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them but that they have disbelieved in Allah and in His Messenger
وَمَا مَنَعَهُمْ أَن تُقْبَلَ مِنْهُمْ نَفَقَاتُهُمْ إِلَّا أَنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا بِاللَّهِ وَبِرَسُولِهِYou accepted Islam with all the previous
أسلمت على ما أسلفت منThe questioner : A woman asks: Her brother pays the zakah on the wealth he inherited from his father after his death every year. Is the zakah he pays accepted or not?
The Shaykh : You heard that his zakah is not accepted. But it remains to be said: if this wealth is still shared among the heirs, it is not permissible for any of the heirs to take it upon himself to pay its zakah except by appointment. Listen, meaning, the wealth may be shared among the heirs and remain for a year or two without being divided, so it is not permissible for one of them to take it upon himself to pay the zakah from it unless he appoints someone. Unless he appoints someone, then he pays. But is it permissible for them to appoint one who has apostatized from Islam, which is the one who does not pray? It is not permissible for them to appoint him to pay an act of worship, of the most important of acts of worship.
The presenter : May Allah reward you.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[39 من 145] ما حكم توكيل تارك الصلاة في إخراج الزكاة؟ الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.