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31 / 12 / 2025
Paying Zakat for Those in Debt and Loans
A poor family has debts, unpaid rent, and other unpaid obligations, and their only source of income has been affected; their car was involved in an accident, which forced the wife to take a usurious loan to repair the car with a monthly installment of 85 dinars. Is it permissible to give them Zakat money, with the condition that they do not use it to repay the usurious loan?
Answer
I say, and with God's success: If he does not possess the nisab, which is an amount of 100 grams of gold, then he is considered poor, and it is permissible to give him zakat. They may request that the zakat not be paid to settle the usurious debt, and they may commit to this request or not; because after they own the zakat money, they have the right to dispose of it as they wish, and God knows best.
