Is it permissible to pay off the debt of a deceased person from zakah, when his family is eligible for zakah?
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Question:
He said: My neighbor passed away, and he had a debt. He has a family, and they are eligible for zakah. The question is: Do we pay off his debt from the zakah?
Answer:
No, the family is more deserving. The needy family is more deserving than paying off the debt of the deceased. In fact, many scholars do not hold that zakah is to be spent on paying off the debts of the dead. They say that it is for the living, not for the dead. Yes.
He said: My neighbor passed away, and he had a debt. He has a family, and they are eligible for zakah. The question is: Do we pay off his debt from the zakah?
Answer:
No, the family is more deserving. The needy family is more deserving than paying off the debt of the deceased. In fact, many scholars do not hold that zakah is to be spent on paying off the debts of the dead. They say that it is for the living, not for the dead. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل يجوز تسديد دين المتوفى من مال الزكاة وعائلته تستحق الزكاة؟ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.