The ruling on deducting a debt from wealth when paying zakah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This brother Fawaz says: Honorable Shaykh, I am a man who has a sum of money, and I want to pay zakah on this amount. Knowing that I have a debt, is this debt deducted from the amount I want to pay zakah on?
Answer:
The correct view is that it is obligatory for you to pay zakah on the money in your possession, even if you have a debt, because this is your property and a lunar year has passed over it, so zakah is due on it. If you paid off the debt before the completion of the lunar year, the zakah would be waived if the wealth fell below the nisab. If you paid off the amount you owed before the completion of the lunar year and the wealth dropped below the nisab, then there is no zakah on you. If the nisab remains, you pay zakah on the remainder. However, if the lunar year is completed and you have not paid it off and you have wealth, you pay zakah on the full amount.
This brother Fawaz says: Honorable Shaykh, I am a man who has a sum of money, and I want to pay zakah on this amount. Knowing that I have a debt, is this debt deducted from the amount I want to pay zakah on?
Answer:
The correct view is that it is obligatory for you to pay zakah on the money in your possession, even if you have a debt, because this is your property and a lunar year has passed over it, so zakah is due on it. If you paid off the debt before the completion of the lunar year, the zakah would be waived if the wealth fell below the nisab. If you paid off the amount you owed before the completion of the lunar year and the wealth dropped below the nisab, then there is no zakah on you. If the nisab remains, you pay zakah on the remainder. However, if the lunar year is completed and you have not paid it off and you have wealth, you pay zakah on the full amount.
Source
من له مال بلغ النصاب وعليه دين — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.