A person lent another person a sum of money, and several years have passed, and this person has not been able to repay it. Is it permissible for the owner of the money to count it toward
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The questioner : This is a question from 'Abd al-Ghani. A person lent another person a sum of money, and several years have passed, and the person who borrowed the money has not been able to repay it. Is it permissible for the owner of the money to count it toward the zakah he pays, and that is every year on the money he has? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : It is not permissible for a person to forgive a debt owed by a poor person and count it toward his zakah, because zakah involves taking and giving. Allah the Exalted said:[At-Tawbah 9:103] And Allah the Exalted said: So there must be taking and giving, and forgiving a debt is neither taking nor giving. Also, a debt in relation to tangible assets is like the bad with the good. The money in your hand, you can dispose of it as you wish; it is not like the debts in the hands of people. If you make the debts in the hands of people zakah on the money in your hand, you are as if you have given out the bad in place of the good. And Allah Blessed and Exalted is He said: [Al-Baqarah 2:267] It is well known that people distinguish between cases where a person has a claim on someone, and he gives him cash from his money, or refers him to a poor person. Everyone knows the difference: he accepts the cash from you, but he does not accept your referring him to a poor person.
Therefore, it is not permissible for a person to forgive any of the debts owed by poor people and count them toward the zakah of the money in his hand. Yes, if we say that zakah is obligatory on the debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, then he may forgive this person in financial difficulty the amount of the zakah on the debt he owes.
An example of this is if a poor person owes a wealthy man ten thousand, and we say that there is zakah on the debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, and the owner of the money wants to forgive this poor person the amount of the zakah on the debt he owes, which is two hundred and fifty, then this would be permissible, because the zakah has now become of the same kind as the money being purified; it is all debt. But the stronger opinion regarding the zakah on debts is that there is zakah every year on the debts owed by those who are able to pay, whereas there is no zakah on the debts owed by those in financial difficulty, even if they remain for decades, except that if a person collects them, he pays zakah on them when he collects them. Yes.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.
The Shaykh : It is not permissible for a person to forgive a debt owed by a poor person and count it toward his zakah, because zakah involves taking and giving. Allah the Exalted said:
Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity
خذ من أموالهم صدقةAnd establish prayer and give zakah
وأقيموا الصلاة وءاتوا الزكاةO you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned and from that which We have produced for you from the earth. And do not aim toward the defective therefrom, spending [from that] while you would not take it [yourself] except with closed eyes
يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ ءامَنوا أَنفِقوا مِن طَيِّباتِ ما كَسَبتُم وَمِمّا أَخرَجنا لَكُم مِنَ الأَرضِ وَلا تَيَمَّمُوا الخَبيثَ مِنهُ تُنفِقونَ وَلَستُم بِآخِذيهِ إِلّا أَن تُغمِضوا فيهِTherefore, it is not permissible for a person to forgive any of the debts owed by poor people and count them toward the zakah of the money in his hand. Yes, if we say that zakah is obligatory on the debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, then he may forgive this person in financial difficulty the amount of the zakah on the debt he owes.
An example of this is if a poor person owes a wealthy man ten thousand, and we say that there is zakah on the debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, and the owner of the money wants to forgive this poor person the amount of the zakah on the debt he owes, which is two hundred and fifty, then this would be permissible, because the zakah has now become of the same kind as the money being purified; it is all debt. But the stronger opinion regarding the zakah on debts is that there is zakah every year on the debts owed by those who are able to pay, whereas there is no zakah on the debts owed by those in financial difficulty, even if they remain for decades, except that if a person collects them, he pays zakah on them when he collects them. Yes.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.