Is it permissible for volunteer zakah committees that collect and distribute it to its rightful recipients to take from the zakah, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted, "and those employed to collect it," and is it...

The questioner : ...in the early 1980s, there were zakah committees in the Kingdom, in Jordan here, including a committee... These are practical experiments, and although the social situation now differs from that of the righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them), we face many problems. First, of course, a zakah committee is not formed without being licensed by the Zakah Fund, that is, by the Ministry of Awqaf, that is, by the ruler. Second, those working on zakah affairs are all volunteers, meaning they are employed in the morning in their jobs—teacher, pharmacist, administrator, and the like—and then in the afternoon and evening hours, they come and strive to collect and distribute zakah, or on holidays and the like.
First: Is it permissible for them, since they are volunteers, to take something from the share of those employed to collect it, from the share of those employed to collect it?
And second, is it permissible to spend some of the zakah funds on charitable projects that benefit the poor primarily, such as a clinic that treats the poor for free, or for example, a small project whose revenue is redistributed to the poor? It is an investment, meaning zakah funds are invested in well-studied projects that yield revenue which is reinvested and distributed to the zakah, that is, to those employed to collect it. Does their description apply to the young volunteers? They perform all the descriptions of those employed to collect it, including collection, distribution, verifying poverty and destitution, and the like.
And second, is it permissible to spend from zakah funds on service projects such as clinics and kindergartens that benefit orphans and the poor and the like?

The Shaykh : Yes. As for the first issue, it is not permissible for them to take from the zakah funds in their capacity as workers, for two reasons, or perhaps more accurately, for one of the two reasons. One is that they are employees, as I said, in the morning, and when they finish their work for which they receive a salary, they work in this cause voluntarily. The second reason, and this is important, is that no one may appoint himself as a worker in the path of good and then impose a share for himself from this good that he collects from people in the name of the poor and the needy. This matter belongs to the one in authority, that is, the Muslim ruler who rules by what Allah has revealed. At that time, this type of worker can be included in the general meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: those employed to collect it, meaning by the Muslim ruler, and not by so-and-so who first employed themselves voluntarily in the path of drawing near to Allah, as I said, and second, that here it opens the door for exploiting funds that were collected with one intention to be spent with another intention. And this other intention, as I said, helps in the second question, and the answer to it will follow; it helps in achieving the first intention. Therefore, it is not permissible for these employees of themselves in the path of collecting zakah funds to make a share for themselves from these funds. As for the answer to the second question, I say: if the funds collected are only obligatory zakah, it is not permissible to spend them except in cash to the poor and the needy, and it is not permissible to dispose of them, even in the paths of good that you mentioned some of. This can be achieved with the second type of zakah, which is voluntary zakah, not obligatory zakah. Therefore, we advise the committees responsible for collecting funds to have two funds: a fund for obligatory zakah and a fund for voluntary zakah or non-zakah, such as gifts, donations, endowments, etc.
So this second fund is allocated for those projects you mentioned. As for establishing these projects with zakah funds, whose original nature is that the poor own them in their hands, that they are given to them as money as it comes, and each one of them then disposes of this money within the limits of his need—this one needs food, that one needs drink, another needs clothing, a fourth needs housing, etc.—it is not permissible to dispose of zakah funds in any benefit whatsoever. Rather, they are given to the poor hand to hand. This is my answer to this question.

The questioner : In a question to our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Is it not possible to finish your question?

The questioner : A continuation.
Another questioner: So a continuation.