Who is given zakah these days?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : O Shaykh, if you please, who is given zakah these days?
The Shaykh : These days, it is given to the one who does not give zakah. Do you know who does not give zakah? It is the poor person who does not have the nisab.
The questioner : The sick person is included in this.
The Shaykh : Whether he is sick or healthy, the important thing is that he is poor. So if he is a poor, sick person, he is more deserving of zakah than a poor, healthy person. The important thing is that he is poor. Then there is a note here that we often discuss with our brother Abu Abdullah and others: zakah must be given to the poor by transferring ownership to them, meaning it must be handed to them directly. It is not, for example, that you go to the hospital and treat him at the expense of the zakah fund. Rather, you give him the money in his hand, and he pays what is due to the hospital or buys medicines and the like. This is the transfer of ownership. The scholars understand this from the saying of Allah the Exalted:[Al-Ma'arij 70:24-25] for the beggar. So the rule is that anyone who is not obligated to pay zakah is permitted to receive zakah.
The questioner : Wealth is collected in days other than zakah; its collection is voluntary charity.
The Shaykh : So if it is general charity and not zakah, it must be separated, because this is with you for flexibility; you have ease with it and can dispose of it as you wish. As for zakah...
The Shaykh : These days, it is given to the one who does not give zakah. Do you know who does not give zakah? It is the poor person who does not have the nisab.
The questioner : The sick person is included in this.
The Shaykh : Whether he is sick or healthy, the important thing is that he is poor. So if he is a poor, sick person, he is more deserving of zakah than a poor, healthy person. The important thing is that he is poor. Then there is a note here that we often discuss with our brother Abu Abdullah and others: zakah must be given to the poor by transferring ownership to them, meaning it must be handed to them directly. It is not, for example, that you go to the hospital and treat him at the expense of the zakah fund. Rather, you give him the money in his hand, and he pays what is due to the hospital or buys medicines and the like. This is the transfer of ownership. The scholars understand this from the saying of Allah the Exalted:
(24) And those within whose wealth is a known right (25) For the petitioner and the deprived -
وفي أموالهم حق معلوم للسائل والمحرومThe questioner : Wealth is collected in days other than zakah; its collection is voluntary charity.
The Shaykh : So if it is general charity and not zakah, it must be separated, because this is with you for flexibility; you have ease with it and can dispose of it as you wish. As for zakah...