If the agent pays the zakah and the owner of the wealth also pays it, what is the ruling?
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The questioner : If he paid it and it later became clear to him that his agent had already paid it, what is the ruling?
The Shaykh : If he paid it and it turned out that his agent had already paid it, then what he paid last becomes voluntary charity, because his liability was discharged by his agent’s payment, and this money becomes sadaqah.
Likewise, we should know a principle mentioned by the scholars: that any obligatory duty a person performs, believing it is due from him, which turns out not to have been due, becomes a voluntary act. For example, if a person prays before the time enters, thinking the time has entered, then when the time actually enters, he must pray within the time, and his first prayer becomes a voluntary act. Similarly, if he prays thinking he omitted something in his prayer that requires him to repeat it, and then it becomes clear that he did not omit anything, then his second prayer becomes a voluntary act.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.
The Shaykh : If he paid it and it turned out that his agent had already paid it, then what he paid last becomes voluntary charity, because his liability was discharged by his agent’s payment, and this money becomes sadaqah.
Likewise, we should know a principle mentioned by the scholars: that any obligatory duty a person performs, believing it is due from him, which turns out not to have been due, becomes a voluntary act. For example, if a person prays before the time enters, thinking the time has entered, then when the time actually enters, he must pray within the time, and his first prayer becomes a voluntary act. Similarly, if he prays thinking he omitted something in his prayer that requires him to repeat it, and then it becomes clear that he did not omit anything, then his second prayer becomes a voluntary act.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.