Prayer, Fasting, and Zakah for an Elderly Man Who Has Lost the Ability to Distinguish
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: My father is an elderly man who has reached the age of ninety. He does not recognize any of us, and he has no ability to distinguish between things. Is prayer and fasting obligatory upon him? Is zakah obligatory on his wealth?
Answer:
Yes, zakah is obligatory on the wealth because it is tied to the wealth, and his guardian acts on his behalf in paying it. As for prayer and fasting, if he has no awareness and does not know that he is required to pray or fast.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: My father is an elderly man who has reached the age of ninety. He does not recognize any of us, and he has no ability to distinguish between things. Is prayer and fasting obligatory upon him? Is zakah obligatory on his wealth?
Answer:
Yes, zakah is obligatory on the wealth because it is tied to the wealth, and his guardian acts on his behalf in paying it. As for prayer and fasting, if he has no awareness and does not know that he is required to pray or fast.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، الباب العاشر في علامات مرض القلب وصحته — islamhouse.com (1:04:25)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.