The ruling on a merchant counting the zakah he paid throughout the year
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: A merchant who gives out zakah when poor people come to him, and when the lunar year of possession arrives, he deducts the amounts he paid throughout the year from his zakah. Is his action valid?
Answer:
Actions are judged by intentions. If he intended what he gives them to be early zakah, there is nothing wrong with that. But if he intended it to be zakah and then later said, "I gave them this, so I will count it as zakah," it is not zakah unless he intended it as such at the time of payment, not that it becomes zakah later. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: A merchant who gives out zakah when poor people come to him, and when the lunar year of possession arrives, he deducts the amounts he paid throughout the year from his zakah. Is his action valid?
Answer:
Actions are judged by intentions. If he intended what he gives them to be early zakah, there is nothing wrong with that. But if he intended it to be zakah and then later said, "I gave them this, so I will count it as zakah," it is not zakah unless he intended it as such at the time of payment, not that it becomes zakah later. Yes.
Source
المنتقى من أخبار سيد المرسلين 25-01-1437هـ — alfawzan.live (41:49)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.