The ruling on waiving a debt owed by a poor person and counting it as zakah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: A man borrowed a sum of money from me, and he is poor. Is it permissible for me to waive this debt from him and count it as the zakah of my wealth?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible. Allah the Exalted said: “And give the zakah.” The obligation of paying zakah requires giving it to the needy. As for waiving a debt, this does not take the place of giving. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
Perhaps you saw on the day that he would not be able to pay you back, or that he would not fulfill his obligation, or you feared he would not come, so you made it zakah.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: A man borrowed a sum of money from me, and he is poor. Is it permissible for me to waive this debt from him and count it as the zakah of my wealth?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible. Allah the Exalted said: “And give the zakah.” The obligation of paying zakah requires giving it to the needy. As for waiving a debt, this does not take the place of giving. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
Perhaps you saw on the day that he would not be able to pay you back, or that he would not fulfill his obligation, or you feared he would not come, so you made it zakah.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 57 من 86 /شرح كتاب إغاثة اللهفان في مصائد الشيطان/غناء البغايا/صالح الفوزان/العقيدة/كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:15:57)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.