Paying off the debts people owe from zakah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner, Abu Ibrahīm, says: I have money owed to me by colleagues that I lent them years ago, and they have not repaid these loans. May I deduct it from the zakah, Shaykh Salih?
Answer:
No, this is not permissible, and it does not count as zakah. However, you must demand it so that you can collect it from them. As for the zakah, you pay it yourself, and you do not deduct the debt people owe you and consider it as zakah, because Allah commanded the giving of zakah. Writing off the debt is not giving zakah. Perhaps you have become desperate about recovering this debt and want to make it zakah; this is not permissible. Yes.
The questioner, Abu Ibrahīm, says: I have money owed to me by colleagues that I lent them years ago, and they have not repaid these loans. May I deduct it from the zakah, Shaykh Salih?
Answer:
No, this is not permissible, and it does not count as zakah. However, you must demand it so that you can collect it from them. As for the zakah, you pay it yourself, and you do not deduct the debt people owe you and consider it as zakah, because Allah commanded the giving of zakah. Writing off the debt is not giving zakah. Perhaps you have become desperate about recovering this debt and want to make it zakah; this is not permissible. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، برنامج (فتاوى) (081) لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان بتاريخ [1436-03-02] - كبار العلماء — youtube.com (29:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.