If the mahr is deferred, is zakah due on the woman for the period during which she has not received it?

The questioner : There are some questions that relate to life in America, but I will start, if Allah wills, with others.
The questioner: The first question, which I had asked Abu al-Harith, is that the custom now is to write a deferred mahr for the wife. This is considered like a debt on the husband, or considered a debt on the husband. So the question is: when the husband repays this debt, is he obligated to pay zakah on this money, especially since it may be repaid after twenty or thirty years?

The Shaykh : Excuse me, is it on him or on her?

The questioner : On the wife. Excuse me, on the wife. Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, is the question finished?

The questioner : It is finished.

The Shaykh : As I have mentioned once and more than once, as long as this deferred mahr has not been possessed by the woman, zakah is not obligatory on her. Rather, the money that a person possesses and then lends to another, even if he no longer possesses it and it has become the property of another through a benevolent loan, that is what we see to be subject to zakah. However, this is based on a condition we derived from some scholars who divide debt into two categories: a living debt and a dead debt. By a living debt, they mean one where the creditor’s hope of recovering it has not been cut off, and the opposite of that is what they mean by a dead debt. So as long as this debt is of the first category, the living one, the creditor must pay its zakah at the end of every year. Here I must draw attention to the fact that a loan in the Shari'ah has a very great reward, in the Book and the Sunnah. But the Sunnah, as we all know, adds to the explanation of many rulings beyond the Qur'an. Among this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in some authentic hadiths about him that So the one who lends this Muslim, who lends his brother two hundred, is as if he gave charity of one hundred. Therefore, one should not be hesitant when it is said to him that he must pay zakah on this money, even if it is not currently in his possession or in his pocket, because he has earned a very great reward with this money. And what is the reward for good except good? And blessings do not last except through gratitude. And part of completing gratitude is that this Muslim pays the zakah on this money that he possessed and then temporarily lent to his Muslim brother. So as long as it remains within the scope of a living debt, he must purify it with zakah. I do not see that the deferred mahr, as mentioned in the question, which the woman has not yet possessed, is subject to this. But when this mahr comes into her hand and a lunar year passes over it while it reaches the nisab, as you know, then the obligation of zakah begins.