If a man has a debt and he smokes cigarettes, does this man deserve zakah or not?
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The reader: The questioner says, if a man has a debt and he smokes cigarettes, and the cost of smoking cigarettes is three thousand riyals per year, does this man deserve zakah or not? And do we tell him to stop smoking cigarettes?
The Shaykh : Deserve what?
The reader: Does he deserve zakah or not?
The Shaykh : Move the taa.
The reader: So, does this man deserve zakah or not?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The reader: And do we tell him to stop smoking cigarettes and we pay off his debt, or what? And is it permissible to trade in it?
The Shaykh : Yes, some scholars hold that if the debt is incurred due to a forbidden act, it is not paid from zakah until the debtor repents. So, if this debt that befell the cigarette smoker was incurred because of the cigarettes, we do not pay off his debt from zakah until he repents.
Others hold that his debt is paid off and he is ordered to repent, but we do not make the payment of the debt contingent upon repentance. This opinion is more correct, because it falls under the general rule. However, we order this man to repent and say, repent from this forbidden act.
Likewise, if paying off his debt, which he incurred due to a forbidden cause, would lead him to indulge further in the forbidden act, then in this case we do not pay off his debt, because if we pay off his debt now, he will go and borrow for the forbidden act a second time.
But we must ask: if the head of the family smokes cigarettes and he is poor and needs zakah for maintenance, and we know, or it is most likely, that if we give him something for maintenance he will spend it on smoking cigarettes, do we give it to him and say, if we give it to him, his matter is up to Allah, or do we try to meet his need without exposing our zakah to being spent on what is forbidden? The second or the first?
The student: The second.
The Shaykh : The second. We try to direct the zakah to something that is not forbidden. For example, we give it to his wife and say, take this zakah and buy what you need for the house. Or we say to him, if it is not possible, or if we do not trust his wife, we say to him: we have zakah for you, so what do you need for your house in order to buy it through your agency? So, if he specifies what the house needs, we buy it through his agency.
The Shaykh : Deserve what?
The reader: Does he deserve zakah or not?
The Shaykh : Move the taa.
The reader: So, does this man deserve zakah or not?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The reader: And do we tell him to stop smoking cigarettes and we pay off his debt, or what? And is it permissible to trade in it?
The Shaykh : Yes, some scholars hold that if the debt is incurred due to a forbidden act, it is not paid from zakah until the debtor repents. So, if this debt that befell the cigarette smoker was incurred because of the cigarettes, we do not pay off his debt from zakah until he repents.
Others hold that his debt is paid off and he is ordered to repent, but we do not make the payment of the debt contingent upon repentance. This opinion is more correct, because it falls under the general rule. However, we order this man to repent and say, repent from this forbidden act.
Likewise, if paying off his debt, which he incurred due to a forbidden cause, would lead him to indulge further in the forbidden act, then in this case we do not pay off his debt, because if we pay off his debt now, he will go and borrow for the forbidden act a second time.
But we must ask: if the head of the family smokes cigarettes and he is poor and needs zakah for maintenance, and we know, or it is most likely, that if we give him something for maintenance he will spend it on smoking cigarettes, do we give it to him and say, if we give it to him, his matter is up to Allah, or do we try to meet his need without exposing our zakah to being spent on what is forbidden? The second or the first?
The student: The second.
The Shaykh : The second. We try to direct the zakah to something that is not forbidden. For example, we give it to his wife and say, take this zakah and buy what you need for the house. Or we say to him, if it is not possible, or if we do not trust his wife, we say to him: we have zakah for you, so what do you need for your house in order to buy it through your agency? So, if he specifies what the house needs, we buy it through his agency.