Q729 :My three brothers are unemployed. Two of them
are married and their wives have received some gold from their parents
at the time of their marriages. Since my brothers are poor, is it
permissible for me to pay my zakah to them? Moreover, is it open to me
to pay them my zakah for several years in advance to help them
establish a business of their own, through which they may have an
innete to look after their families?
A729 : The general rule is that zakah may be paid to
close relatives who are not entitled to be supported by the zakah
payer. For example, zakah may not be paid to poor father, because it is
obligatory to support the father if he does not have the means to look
after himself financially. The reason for non-payment of zakah to such
a poor father is that the payer would be actually paying his zakah to
himself. It would simply reduce his duty to support his father. This is
not permissible. You are not required by right to support your poor
brothers, although you will be greatly rewarded if you do so.
Therefore, you may help them with your zakah and you will be rewarded
for that, Allah willing. The Prophet was asked whether sadaqah, or
charity, can be given to relatives. He answered: “If it is paid to a
poor person, it is sadaqah, but if it is paid to a relative, it is both
sadaqah and kindness.” This means that there is more reward to be
gained by paying one’s zakah and sadaqah to poor relatives. Many
leading scholars agree that zakah may be paid in advance. Therefore,
you may go ahead and pay your brothers your zakah for the next few
years in order to help them establish their business. By doing so, you
may achieve the very important objective of making your brothers
self-sufficient. This is indeed the purpose of zakah. What you should
do is to calculate approximately how much zakah you will be paying each
year. If you know that you will average a saving of say one hundred
thousand a year, your zakah liability will be 2500. You may pay your
brothers ten thousand now, making your intention clear in your mind
that you are paying 2500 of zakah for each of the following four years.
At the end of each zakah year, which is the date when you first owned
an amount of money equivalent to the threshold of zakah, you have to
calculate your zakah liability. If it is more than 2500, you have to
make up the difference. If it is less than that, you cannot go to your
brothers and claim the difference from them or consider it as a loan on
account of your zakah for future years. The extra amount will be
credited to you by Allah as charitable donation or sadaqah. You will be
rewarded for that undoubtedly.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )