Issue: Explaining how to give zakah to the indebted person for the sake of reconciling people.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Who is the second category of the indebted? The one who incurs debt for the sake of reconciling people. How does this happen? It occurs between two tribes that are in a state of enmity, discord, and fighting. A man of good character and authority comes and mediates between the two tribes, saying, "Reconcile your differences, and I will give each tribe ten thousand." So he incurs a debt of how much?
The student: Twenty thousand.
The Shaykh : He incurs a debt of twenty thousand. It is permissible for us to pay this debt of twenty thousand from the zakah. Why? Because this person who incurred the debt did not benefit from what he spent, and his debt was not for his own interest, but for the interest of others. So we give him from the zakah, or we settle his debt from the zakah, to encourage those like him and to encourage him himself to continue with this noble character, which is reconciling people.
The student: Twenty thousand.
The Shaykh : He incurs a debt of twenty thousand. It is permissible for us to pay this debt of twenty thousand from the zakah. Why? Because this person who incurred the debt did not benefit from what he spent, and his debt was not for his own interest, but for the interest of others. So we give him from the zakah, or we settle his debt from the zakah, to encourage those like him and to encourage him himself to continue with this noble character, which is reconciling people.