Ruling on Giving Zakah to the Mother

Q: The questioner, Brother M. S. H. from Buraydah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, says in his question: Is it permissible for me to give my mother a sum of money and consider it as zakah, knowing that my father provides for her and he is in a good state, praise be to Allah? Also, I have a brother who is capable of working but has not yet married, and may Allah guide him, he does not consistently maintain the prayer. Is it permissible for me to spend some of the zakah on him? Please inform us, may Allah reward you with good.

A: It is not permissible for you to give your mother anything from the zakah, because zakah is not spent on the parents, and because she is wealthy in regard to it due to your father’s provision for her.
As for your brother, it is not permissible to spend zakah on him as long as he abandons the prayer, because the prayer is the greatest pillar of Islam after the two testimonies, and because abandoning it intentionally is major shirk (associating partners with Allah), even if he does not deny its obligation, according to the most correct of the scholars’ opinions, and because he is strong and earns a living. Whenever the need arises to provide for him, his father is more entitled to do so, because he is the one responsible for his maintenance as long as he is able to do so. May Allah guide him and direct him to the truth, and protect him from the evil of his own self, his Shaytan, and bad companions.