A man’s father passed away leaving behind many debts. Is it permissible for the one to whom those debts are owed to deduct them from his zakah?
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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: A man’s father passed away leaving behind many debts. Is it permissible for the one to whom those debts are owed to deduct them from his zakah and take his money, which is from the zakah of his wealth?
Answer:
No. Forgiving the debts is not sufficient in place of zakah, because Allah commanded the giving of zakah, meaning paying the zakah to those in need, and forgiving a debt is not giving it. Also, perhaps when he became desperate about the debt and feared he would not get it, he said it would be from the zakah. No, this is not acceptable. Forgiving the debt does not suffice for paying the zakah. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: A man’s father passed away leaving behind many debts. Is it permissible for the one to whom those debts are owed to deduct them from his zakah and take his money, which is from the zakah of his wealth?
Answer:
No. Forgiving the debts is not sufficient in place of zakah, because Allah commanded the giving of zakah, meaning paying the zakah to those in need, and forgiving a debt is not giving it. Also, perhaps when he became desperate about the debt and feared he would not get it, he said it would be from the zakah. No, this is not acceptable. Forgiving the debt does not suffice for paying the zakah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [603 -954] رجل توفي والده وخلف ديونا كثيرة، فهل يجوز لمن له تلك الديون أن يخصمها من زكاته؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.