If a man demands from a poor person who cannot pay ten thousand riyals, and this debtor has zakat due on him amounting to ten thousand riyals, does the debt fall off?

The Shaykh : Okay, if a man demands from a poor person who cannot pay, and he demands ten thousand riyals from him, and this debtor has zakat due on him amounting ten thousand riyals, do you understand what I said?

The questioner : I mean, a man has ten thousand riyals due on him, so we go and settle it for him because he is a poor man.

The Shaykh : Listen, a poor man has ten thousand riyals due to a rich man, and his zakat is ten thousand riyals. The question is clear now, right? So this rich man says, instead of taking ten thousand riyals from my wealth, I will drop the debt from this poor man and tell the poor man, "The debt on you has been dropped," and he counts it toward the zakat he owes. Is this permissible or not? It is not permissible. This is not permissible. It is not permissible to drop the debt from the poor man with the intention of zakat. Why? Because in zakat there is taking and giving. Take from their wealth a charity. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal: And dropping the debt does not involve taking and giving. This is the first point. The second point is that a debt that is considered lost cannot be zakat on wealth that is present in the hand of its owner. Right? This is a debt that is considered lost because its owner is poor, and the money I have in my hand, I can dispose of it as I wish. So how can a debt that is considered lost be zakat on wealth in the hand of its owner, which he can dispose of as he pleases? Is this not similar to one who spends the bad instead of the good? And Allah the Exalted said: Therefore, if you had a debt on a third person and he said, "I will transfer you to this poor man," would you accept it or not? The speech is in Arabic, my brothers.