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[Q-ID0881] Must Zakah be given in cash form only or can we give other items instead?

QUESTION:

What do the scholars of the Dīn and muftīs of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: How is to pay Zakāh using something else?

Questioner: Ubayd from UK

ANSWER:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایة الحق والصواب

It is not essential to use only money to pay Zakāh. One may give some food to a poor person instead or one may also give one’s extra clothes in the home to them as well. If a person has some furniture that they are no longer in need of, then one may also give this to a poor person in the form of Zakāh as well. Yes, one should bear in mind that it’s price will be considered in terms of the market rate of that specific day.

Just as it is stated in Nahr al-Fā’iq Sharh Kanz al-Daqā’iq,

“لو أطعم يتيماً ناوياً الزكاة لا تجزئه إلا إذا دفع إليه المطعوم كما لو كساه بشرط أن يكون مراهقاً يعقل القبض وإن كان صغيراً لا يجزئه۔”

“If one feeds an orphan with the intention of Zakāh, then Zakāh will not be fulfilled; unless they are made the owner of it. Likewise, if they are clothed (then Zakāh will be fulfilled), provided that they have enough sense to know how to take possession. And if it was a small child, then Zakāh will not be fulfilled.”

[al-Nahr al-Fā’iq Sharh Kanz al-Daqā’iq, vol. 1, p. 412]

Likewise, ‘Allāmah Shāmī states in Radd al-Muhtār,

“فَلَوْ أَطْعَمَ يَتِيمًا نَاوِيًا الزَّكَاةَ لَا يَجْزِيهِ إلَّا إذَا دَفَعَ إلَيْهِ الْمَطْعُومَ كَمَا لَوْ كَسَاهُ بِشَرْطِ أَنْ يَعْقِلَ الْقَبْضَ”

“If one feeds an orphan with the intention of Zakāh, then Zakāh will not be fulfilled; unless they are made the owner of it. Similarly, if they are clothed (then Zakāh will be fulfilled), provided that they have the ability to take possession.”

[Radd al-Muhtār, vol. 2, p. 257]

Muftī Amjad ‘Alī A’zhamī states in Bahār-e-Sharī’at, ‘If one offers food, clothes, etc instead of money to a poor person and makes them the owner, then Zakāh will be fulfilled. But its price being from the market rate should be understood as Zakāh. One is not to deduct the overheads spent for example the money given to a worker or if ordered from a village, then the rent and duty. Or if one has had something cooked, then one will not deduct the cost of the payment spent on cooking or the wood. Rather, whatever the price of that cooked item is, that is what will be considered.’

[Bahār-e-Sharī’at, vol. 1, part 5, p. 909]

والله تعالی أعلم ورسوله أعلم صلی الله علیه وآله وسلم کتبه أبو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء القادري

Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qādiri

Translated by Haider Ali al-Madanī

Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0881] Must Zakah be given in cash form only or can we give other items instead?

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