Issue: A man died leaving a debt; is it permissible to pay his debt from zakah?

The Shaykh : A man died leaving a debt. A man died leaving a debt. Is it permissible for us to pay the debt of the deceased from zakah? He died; the man died while in debt. Is it permissible for us to settle his debt from zakah? We look and see: if this debtor who died left behind an estate, do we pay it off or not?
We do not pay it off if he left behind an estate, because he is wealthy with what he left behind. It is obligatory for his heirs to hasten to pay off his debt from his money. They have no claim over their deceased relative, because the money is his, and the heirs' right does not exist until after the debt is paid. If he has no money, do we pay his debt from zakah? The majority of scholars hold that it is not permissible to pay the debt of the deceased from zakah. In fact, Ibn 'Abd al-Barr and Abu 'Ubayd reported the consensus of the scholars that it is not permissible to pay the debt of the dead from zakah. All four schools of jurisprudence are on the side of prohibition, as are other scholars, except for a few, all of whom are on the side of prohibition that the debt of the dead is not paid from zakah. A small number of scholars held that it is permissible to pay the debt of the deceased from zakah. They argued with His saying: . Allah did not condition the transfer of ownership to the debtor, and the deceased is in need of having his debt paid. However, the stronger opinion is that it is not permissible to pay the debt of the deceased, the debt that is upon the deceased, from zakah. The evidence for this is that in the beginning, if a person died with a debt and no means to pay it, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would not pray over him and would say: "Pray over your companion." Then a man from the Ansar was brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for him to pray over him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stepped forward to pray over him, then said: "Does he have a debt?" They said: "Yes." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) withdrew and did not pray over him, and said: "Pray over your companion." Then Abu Qatadah stood up and said: "O Messenger of Allah, the two dinars are upon me." When Abu Qatadah (may Allah be pleased with him) guaranteed the debt, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stepped forward and prayed over him. When Allah opened up conquests for His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: . And he began to pay the debts of people from what Allah had opened up for him. The way of indication from this hadith is that if paying the debt of the deceased from zakah had been permissible, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would have paid the debts of the dead from zakah so that we could pray over them. And because if we opened this door and said that the debt of the deceased is paid from zakah, people would become negligent regarding debts, because one would say: "If I die, people will pay this debt for me from zakah." And they would be negligent regarding debts and those who owe them.