The ruling on zakah in the funds of an employee association in a government department
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Your Eminence! These are employees in a government department who collect two hundred riyals from their salaries every month. There are fifty men, and they have been collecting for this association for several years?The Shaykh: Each one?The questioner himself: I mean: two hundred riyals per month.
The Shaykh: Two hundred per person, or for the group?The questioner: Two hundred from each employee.
The Shaykh: How much does that make per month?The questioner: Two hundred from fifty.
The Shaykh: Ten thousand.
The questioner: Now, Shaykh, each employee’s balance has reached approximately fifteen thousand, so these amounts are lent to the members, meaning: to the contributors, as a benevolent loan. But at the end of the year, when the lunar year arrives, there is not a single riyal in the box. Is zakah obligatory on them, Shaykh?The Shaykh: First: May Allah bless you! Do these contributors intend that this amount has exited their ownership?The questioner: No, Shaykh, it belongs to them.
The Shaykh: If he requests to retrieve it, is it returned to him?The questioner: Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh: And if he dies, is it given to his heirs?The questioner: Yes, Shaykh! The Shaykh: Then it is their property.
The questioner: Yes;But it is not present in the box now. The Shaykh: It is not present, but it is a debt.
The questioner: Yes, it is a debt, Shaykh! The Shaykh: So each one of them must pay zakah on his share.
The questioner: Some of them are borrowing from the same box.
The Shaykh: It does not harm.
The questioner: They are now, Shaykh—They are thinking of buying cars. The Shaykh: If a person is a borrower, there is no zakah on his share; because he has consumed it, and [it is] the share of the others.
The questioner: There is no zakah on the borrower, Shaykh?The Shaykh: There is no zakah on the borrower because it is gone.
The questioner: Yes, he has, for example, twenty or thirty thousand.
The Shaykh: What he took, he spent on food, clothing, drink, construction, and the like.
The questioner: Is there zakah on the non-borrowers?The Shaykh: And the lender has zakah on him.
The questioner: Shaykh! They are now thinking of buying cars and intending to do so so that the money does not decrease from zakah; they will install it, some of them on others, from the capital?The Shaykh: By Allah, I do not advise them to do this, and although some scholars permit it, I do not advise them because this involves a type of circumvention, and a little of what is lawful is better than much of what is forbidden.
Glory be to You, O Allah, our Lord, and praise be to You, I testify that there is no god but You, I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.
The Shaykh: Two hundred per person, or for the group?The questioner: Two hundred from each employee.
The Shaykh: How much does that make per month?The questioner: Two hundred from fifty.
The Shaykh: Ten thousand.
The questioner: Now, Shaykh, each employee’s balance has reached approximately fifteen thousand, so these amounts are lent to the members, meaning: to the contributors, as a benevolent loan. But at the end of the year, when the lunar year arrives, there is not a single riyal in the box. Is zakah obligatory on them, Shaykh?The Shaykh: First: May Allah bless you! Do these contributors intend that this amount has exited their ownership?The questioner: No, Shaykh, it belongs to them.
The Shaykh: If he requests to retrieve it, is it returned to him?The questioner: Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh: And if he dies, is it given to his heirs?The questioner: Yes, Shaykh! The Shaykh: Then it is their property.
The questioner: Yes;But it is not present in the box now. The Shaykh: It is not present, but it is a debt.
The questioner: Yes, it is a debt, Shaykh! The Shaykh: So each one of them must pay zakah on his share.
The questioner: Some of them are borrowing from the same box.
The Shaykh: It does not harm.
The questioner: They are now, Shaykh—They are thinking of buying cars. The Shaykh: If a person is a borrower, there is no zakah on his share; because he has consumed it, and [it is] the share of the others.
The questioner: There is no zakah on the borrower, Shaykh?The Shaykh: There is no zakah on the borrower because it is gone.
The questioner: Yes, he has, for example, twenty or thirty thousand.
The Shaykh: What he took, he spent on food, clothing, drink, construction, and the like.
The questioner: Is there zakah on the non-borrowers?The Shaykh: And the lender has zakah on him.
The questioner: Shaykh! They are now thinking of buying cars and intending to do so so that the money does not decrease from zakah; they will install it, some of them on others, from the capital?The Shaykh: By Allah, I do not advise them to do this, and although some scholars permit it, I do not advise them because this involves a type of circumvention, and a little of what is lawful is better than much of what is forbidden.
Glory be to You, O Allah, our Lord, and praise be to You, I testify that there is no god but You, I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.