Waiving a Debt for the Debtor and Counting It as Zakah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
When a person lends a sum of money for a known term and the borrower is unable to repay, and the debt comes due and is in his possession, is it permissible for me to waive this money to free him by making it his zakah?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible to waive a debt from zakah, because Allah the Exalted commanded giving zakah, meaning paying it to those in need. Waiving a debt is neither giving nor paying. Rather, when he sees that this person is poor and may not be able to repay, he says, "Let me make it his zakah." No, this is not valid; this is not valid.
When a person lends a sum of money for a known term and the borrower is unable to repay, and the debt comes due and is in his possession, is it permissible for me to waive this money to free him by making it his zakah?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible to waive a debt from zakah, because Allah the Exalted commanded giving zakah, meaning paying it to those in need. Waiving a debt is neither giving nor paying. Rather, when he sees that this person is poor and may not be able to repay, he says, "Let me make it his zakah." No, this is not valid; this is not valid.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-032-الصيام آداب و أحكام|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:10:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.