The Ruling on Zakah

The Shaykh : As for its ruling, it is an obligation by consensus. It is the consensus of the Muslims that zakah is obligatory. For this reason, the scholars said that if a person says it is not obligatory, and he has lived among the Muslims, he is declared a disbeliever. He becomes an apostate, a disbeliever, and one who has exited Islam, even if he pays zakah. Even if he were a noble man who gives away a lot of money and gives zakah, and more than zakah, and says it is not obligatory but is among the noble qualities and the best of character, what is his ruling? His ruling is that he is a disbeliever, because he denied what the obligation of which is known necessarily in the religion of Islam. Good.