Is zakah due on money twice, from both the debtor and the creditor?

The questioner : The questioner says: You stated that you described Allah by saying that debt does not preclude zakah. Does this mean that the money is zakaed twice, by both the debtor and the creditor? Does this mean that we pay zakah on the money twice, from both the debtor and the creditor?

The Shaykh : Yes, we say that debt does not prevent zakah. This is because zakah is obligatory on the money, not on the liability, while the debt is a liability on the person, not on the money. Evidence for this is that the debtor disposes of this money as he wishes, and if this money were to be lost, the debt would not be dropped. If the debt were obligatory on the money itself, he would not be able to dispose of it as he pleases, nor would the debt be dropped if it were lost.
As for the obligation of zakah on the one who is owed a debt, we say that the wealth attributed to a person, which is in his ownership and inherited after his death, is either in the form of tangible assets or debts. If we said that zakah is not obligatory on debt, we would exclude much of the zakah that is obligatory on the rich, because most of the rich trade through immediate exchange and credit. If we said that there is no zakah on debt, there would be a major flaw in the implementation of zakah among Muslims. Here, we have not obligated two zakahs on one piece of money, because the money with the debtor is his property, so zakah is obligatory on him. As for the money that is the debt, it is in the debtor's liability as an estimated amount, so we obligated zakah on this money in the liability, not on this money in the debtor's hand. Thus, it becomes a voluntary act for him and an obligatory act for them.
If someone says that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not know about this, we say this is a claim without evidence, because it is unlikely that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not know about it, especially since an incident occurred regarding this matter. He began one day to read fiqh, or rather to lead the prayer, when a man among the Muslims left, and completed the prayer alone. Then the matter was brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he became angry with Mu'adh until he said to him This indicates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) knew about it. And if we concede and say, hypothetically, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not know about it, then Allah the Exalted knew about it, and Allah the Exalted does not allow anyone to remain in error during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). For this reason, when the hypocrites , and the people did not know about them, Allah the Glorious and Exalted made them clear, saying .
For this reason, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) used the approval of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He for matters as evidence of their permissibility, as in the hadith of Jabir He used the permissibility of 'azl (coitus interruptus) as evidence that this was during the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, for if there had been anything to be prohibited, the Qur'an would have prohibited it.