Details of the Rulings on Zakah on Debts

A message from one of the listening brothers says: I have a debt owed to me by one of the brothers. Is its zakah obligatory on me, or is there a specific time for it?
Answer: If the debt you have is with wealthy people who are generous, and they give you your right whenever you ask for it, then you must pay its zakah whenever the lunar year completes, as if it were in your possession, as if it were with them as a trust, or as if it were in a box that you are responsible for paying zakah on.
As for if the one who owes the debt is unable to pay, and cannot pay it to you, or if he is not unable to pay but he delays you and you cannot take it from him, then the correct opinion among the scholars is: that it is not obligatory for you to pay the zakah until you receive it from him, whether from this one who delays or from this one who is unable to pay. So when you receive it, you start a new lunar year with it and you pay the zakah after the completion of the lunar year from your receiving it. And if you pay the zakah for one of the previous years that it was with the one who is unable to pay or the one who delays, there is no harm in that; some of the scholars said this. But it is not obligatory for you except in the future: whenever you receive the money from the one who is unable to pay or the one who delays, and you start a lunar year with it and the lunar year completes over it, the zakah becomes obligatory on you. This is the preferred opinion. Yes.