Postponing Zakah
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Question: I am Sudanese and work in Qatar. I have some sheep in Sudan, and I have been in Qatar for more than a year. Is it permissible to postpone the zakah on them until after I return to Sudan? I have not paid the zakah on them last year while I was here in Qatar. When I return from Sudan, should I wait until the second lunar year completes and pay the zakah for both years together, or should I pay the zakah for the past year immediately? Please guide us. May Allah reward you with good.
Answer: There is no doubt that zakah is one of the pillars of Islam, and that it is obligatory to pay it when the lunar year is completed, provided one is able to do so. If you are absent from your wealth, as you mentioned, with your wealth in Sudan and you in Qatar, then you should appoint a representative to act on your behalf in paying the zakah at its proper time. This is because doing so is a promptness in fulfilling the obligation and a guarantee of paying the right that is due from you, lest something happen to you, such as death or forgetfulness or otherwise, that delays the payment of the obligation or makes it difficult.
As for what you mentioned about whether, if you go to Sudan, you should delay paying the zakah for the past year
until the next year comes and you pay both together, or pay it early, the correct course is to hasten to pay the zakah for the past year. This is not "early payment" as you phrased it, but rather the payment of a zakah that has become established and obligatory for a previous year. Early payment, in its correct meaning, refers to paying a zakah whose time has not yet arrived. Therefore, you are required to pay the zakah for the past year immediately upon arriving in your country, provided you are able to do so. It is not permissible for you to delay it except for a valid Islamic excuse, because delaying it is a negligence in paying it and exposes it to circumstances that prevent its payment. So you must hasten to pay it. If, as we mentioned, you had appointed a trustworthy representative to pay it in your absence, someone you trust to deliver it to its legitimate recipients, that would have been better and would have cleared your conscience more completely.
In any case, it is obligatory for you to take care of the zakah on your wealth and to hasten to pay it when it becomes obligatory, and not to be lax in its matter. And Allah the Exalted knows best.
Answer: There is no doubt that zakah is one of the pillars of Islam, and that it is obligatory to pay it when the lunar year is completed, provided one is able to do so. If you are absent from your wealth, as you mentioned, with your wealth in Sudan and you in Qatar, then you should appoint a representative to act on your behalf in paying the zakah at its proper time. This is because doing so is a promptness in fulfilling the obligation and a guarantee of paying the right that is due from you, lest something happen to you, such as death or forgetfulness or otherwise, that delays the payment of the obligation or makes it difficult.
As for what you mentioned about whether, if you go to Sudan, you should delay paying the zakah for the past year
until the next year comes and you pay both together, or pay it early, the correct course is to hasten to pay the zakah for the past year. This is not "early payment" as you phrased it, but rather the payment of a zakah that has become established and obligatory for a previous year. Early payment, in its correct meaning, refers to paying a zakah whose time has not yet arrived. Therefore, you are required to pay the zakah for the past year immediately upon arriving in your country, provided you are able to do so. It is not permissible for you to delay it except for a valid Islamic excuse, because delaying it is a negligence in paying it and exposes it to circumstances that prevent its payment. So you must hasten to pay it. If, as we mentioned, you had appointed a trustworthy representative to pay it in your absence, someone you trust to deliver it to its legitimate recipients, that would have been better and would have cleared your conscience more completely.
In any case, it is obligatory for you to take care of the zakah on your wealth and to hasten to pay it when it becomes obligatory, and not to be lax in its matter. And Allah the Exalted knows best.