A man lent me money, then zakah became obligatory upon me, and he is poor. Is it permissible for me to calculate the zakah from the money I lent him? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.
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The questioner : Honorable Shaykh, a man lent me money, then zakah became obligatory upon me, and he is poor. Is it permissible for me to calculate the zakah from the money I lent him? Please advise us, may Allah reward you?
The Shaykh : Did you hear the question? A person lent a poor man one thousand riyals, and the lender had forty thousand riyals in his possession. What is the zakah on forty thousand riyals? What is the zakah on forty thousand riyals? One thousand riyals, because we can calculate the zakah by dividing what we have by forty, and the result of the division is the zakah. So, this man’s zakah is one thousand riyals, and the poor man owes him one thousand riyals. Is it permissible to offset the debt owed by the poor man against the zakah on the forty thousand in his hand? That is the question. And the answer is: No, it is not permissible to offset the debt against the zakah. The evidence or the reasoning is that we say: the money in your hand is actual cash, and the money in the poor man’s debt is a debt. And a debt is considered, in relation to actual cash, to be from the impure rather than the pure. And Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Baqarah 2:267] And based on this, we say: pay the zakah to this poor man, even if he is your debtor. Pay the zakah to him, and then if he wishes, he will repay you from what you gave him, and if he wishes, he will not repay you. Yes.
The Shaykh : Did you hear the question? A person lent a poor man one thousand riyals, and the lender had forty thousand riyals in his possession. What is the zakah on forty thousand riyals? What is the zakah on forty thousand riyals? One thousand riyals, because we can calculate the zakah by dividing what we have by forty, and the result of the division is the zakah. So, this man’s zakah is one thousand riyals, and the poor man owes him one thousand riyals. Is it permissible to offset the debt owed by the poor man against the zakah on the forty thousand in his hand? That is the question. And the answer is: No, it is not permissible to offset the debt against the zakah. The evidence or the reasoning is that we say: the money in your hand is actual cash, and the money in the poor man’s debt is a debt. And a debt is considered, in relation to actual cash, to be from the impure rather than the pure. And Allah the Exalted said: