The impermissibility of waiving a debt owed by an insolvent debtor from one's zakah

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A man lent money to someone, and the debtor became unable to repay due to his need and poverty. Is it permissible for the lender to waive this debt and consider it as part of his zakah?
It is not permissible.Meaning: It is not permissible for a person who owes zakah and has an insolvent debtor to waive from his debt an amount equal to his zakah.The Shaykh al-Islam said: This is not permissible without any scholarly disagreement.
The reason for this is clear, because zakah involves taking and giving.Allah the Exalted said:

Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity

خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً

[Surah al-Tawbah: 103] And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal: "Inform them that Allah has made obligatory upon them a charity from their wealth, to be taken from their rich and returned to their poor", and a debt is not like that.

Third: A debt owed by an insolvent person is, in reality, a lost asset, because he may die without paying it off. The money in your hand is a present asset. You cannot make a lost asset the zakah for a present asset, for this is similar to paying zakah with defective goods instead of good ones.And Allah the Exalted said:

O you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned and from that which We have produced for you from the earth. And do not aim toward the defective therefrom, spending

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْفِقُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ وَلا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنْفِقُونَ

[Surah al-Baqarah: 267] meaning: Do not aim for the defective and pay your zakah from it.

Source shamela.ws

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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