The ruling on using zakah to free a debtor prisoner
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A man was negligent with people's money until what he owed reached four hundred thousand riyals. He is currently in prison, has been there for four years, and is now entering his fifth year. He had been dealing in some riba (usury or interest). The question is: Is it permissible to seek his release and pay off what he owes from the zakah, given that he has reformed himself in prison and repented?
Answer:
As long as he has repented, may Allah accept his repentance, and we help him from the zakah, there is nothing wrong with that. This is because he is unable to pay, so he is a debtor. Allah the Exalted has allocated a share of the zakah for debtors. Yes, he is a debtor for himself. And as long as he has repented from the forbidden earnings, this encourages repentance.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A man was negligent with people's money until what he owed reached four hundred thousand riyals. He is currently in prison, has been there for four years, and is now entering his fifth year. He had been dealing in some riba (usury or interest). The question is: Is it permissible to seek his release and pay off what he owes from the zakah, given that he has reformed himself in prison and repented?
Answer:
As long as he has repented, may Allah accept his repentance, and we help him from the zakah, there is nothing wrong with that. This is because he is unable to pay, so he is a debtor. Allah the Exalted has allocated a share of the zakah for debtors. Yes, he is a debtor for himself. And as long as he has repented from the forbidden earnings, this encourages repentance.
Source
إعطاء الزكاة لرجل فرط في أموال الناس وأصبح مدينا — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.