To whom is it prescribed to give zakat al-fitr?

The questioner :
To whom is it prescribed to give zakat al-fitr? To the one who is entitled to it.

The Shaykh :
This is a practical issue among those for which there is no explicit evidence, and therefore the scholars differed greatly on it.
Some of them consider giving the zakat from oneself or accepting it from others, and this is the position of al-Shafi'i and others.
One gives the zakat from oneself and accepts it from others, because al-Shafi'i and others do not require the one giving the zakat to be...
...giving it from his own person. In the case of the fitr charity, one must be wealthy, unlike Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him), who requires that it be obligatory upon him to give...
...the fitr charity on the condition that he owns the nisab. That means today, owning one thousand six hundred Syrian pounds...
...or approximately two thousand. Hence they differed, because there is no explicit text. What you see is that this matter, namely the command to give...
...the charity, is like all the commands of the Shari'ah, falling under the rule "Fear Allah as much as you are able," and falling under the saying of the Messenger...
(peace and blessings be upon him): "I have commanded you to do something, so do as much of it as you are able." So if a man is poor, what does poor mean in the sense...
...that he does not own the nisab, but he has five hundred notes, good and blessed, five hundred notes. If he looks...
...at them, ten pounds is the value of what? Ten sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg). Do you see...? At this moment, his economic life, especially on...
...the day of the festival. But if a person has nothing other than the ten pounds, he comes and spends it as charity... So this is the nisab.
Even those who did not stipulate the nisab, as Abu Hanifa did, or the ability, as others see it, these people...
...mentioned the charities: the charity that is obligatory upon him and the charity that he accepts from a second party. And I repeat, I say...
...Fear Allah as much as you are able. The one who gives the fitr charity is the one who is able, and every person is accountable for himself, and our Lord, Mighty and Majestic...
...knows from every person whether he is able to give the charity or not able. So the one who is able must...
...give it, even if he does not own the nisab, because this condition did not come in the Book or the Sunnah, but it is an ijtihad (independent legal reasoning)...
...of Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him).