What is the ruling on one who abandons zakah out of laziness?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Some scholars cite the statement of Allah the Exalted,[At-Tawbah 9:5], as evidence for the disbelief of one who abandons zakah out of laziness. How do we respond to the claim that he is not a disbeliever?
Answer:
This applies to the original disbeliever. The original disbeliever, if he repents to Allah and says, "I do not contradict; I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and I pray, fast, and perform Hajj, but I do not acknowledge zakah," his repentance is not accepted, and he does not enter Islam. He does not enter Islam unless he acknowledges the pillars of Islam and acts upon them. Yes.
Some scholars cite the statement of Allah the Exalted,
But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah
فَإِن تَابُوا وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَAnswer:
This applies to the original disbeliever. The original disbeliever, if he repents to Allah and says, "I do not contradict; I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and I pray, fast, and perform Hajj, but I do not acknowledge zakah," his repentance is not accepted, and he does not enter Islam. He does not enter Islam unless he acknowledges the pillars of Islam and acts upon them. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من يترك الزكاة كسلا؟ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.