What is your opinion regarding one who pays zakat al-fitr in cash, relying on the madhhab of Abu Hanifah?

The questioner : As for those who permit paying the alms of fitr in money, they say that Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) permitted it, knowing that this contradicts the explicit hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So what is said to them? They say that the Imam, just as the proof of Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) is a proof, and this is taken from him, meaning, so what do we say to these people?

The Shaykh : We say to these people: . The problem with these people is that they do not know the value of the Book and the Sunnah, or at the very least, they do not know the status of the Book and the Sunnah as they know the status of the Imams. Then they look at the madhhabs of the four Imams as four Shari'ahs, so it is permissible for a Muslim to take from any one of these four Shari'ahs, or from any one of these four madhhabs. Therefore, people like these need a lecture delivered to them, explaining to them what the religion is. Is the religion what so-and-so and so-and-so said? Or is the religion as Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, *** The Companions said; it is not by equivocation.
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist.
Nor is it denying the attributes and negating them *** out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation)." The point is that these people must understand that the matter returns, in every issue in which scholars and jurists disagreed, to what Allah said and what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said. Then we follow this by saying that there are hadiths stating that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: , and another hadith from the hadith of Ibn Abbas that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . The intended meaning of this alms is feeding, by the text of this hadith. So draw their attention to this hadith and that hadith. The first hadith specifies the type of food in which the alms of fitr was made obligatory, and the second hadith draws attention to the wisdom of the legislation of the alms of fitr. This wisdom has two branches: one relates to the one who pays the zakah, and the other relates to the poor person. Regarding the first wisdom, it says: "a purification for the fasting person." This alms is a purification for the fasting person. And regarding the other, it is "food for the poor." So when you give him cash, you have not fed him, as many people imagine. Recently, a discussion took place between me and one of them. He said, thinking he was being reasonable and prioritizing opinion and reason over transmission: "When we give the poor person money, he expands his use of it, buying clothes for his family and children, and so on." So we said to him: My brother, the intended meaning of this alms is not the same as the intended meaning of the alms from the annual zakah, which is obligatory with its known conditions, including the nisab (minimum threshold for zakah) as we mentioned earlier. It must be paid out of either gold or silver. Here, the matter is not like that, because the intended meaning is not general expansion in everything for the poor person, but rather a specific expansion, which is in food. And this specific expansion is not only on the day of the festival, because that is only one day, but the expansion is also for the days after the festival. This is what happens when the poor and needy have a sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of this food that the Lord of the Worlds made obligatory through the tongue of His noble Prophet. They become somewhat wealthy for months, and perhaps more, depending on the alms that our Lord sent to them. The intended meaning of this alms is only expansion for the poor in their food. Therefore, if we make these people understand, and if they are willing to free themselves from two things: first, madhhab fanaticism, because the one who says to you, "My madhhab is Hanafi and my Imam says so, and my Imam is a scholar, and so on," it is difficult to free him from this madhhab fanaticism except through follow-up and pursuit with the best manner. Also, we need to free them from following desires, because many people are not Hanafi in madhhab, but rather they see, by their opinion and their intellect, that the madhhab of Abu Hanifah is more suitable in this era. So they leave their madhhab for the madhhab of one who contradicts them in ninety-nine out of a hundred issues, except in this issue. They take the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifah because they found a desire in their hearts. So it is upon us to educate people first to free themselves from madhhab fanaticism, and second, from following desires, because following desires is misleading. Yes.