Question

As Salamu alaykum

Can a Islamic institution be a proxy on behalf of a Zakat giver and Zakat recipient, by which the proxy can pay off the debt of the recipient upon the permission of the recipient directly to the creditor without the recipient having possession of the wealth? Can the institution pay off the debt of a zakat recipient from zakat money received prior to being the proxy of the zakat recipient?

JazakAllahu khayran

Answer

If a valid recipient of zakat appoints a proxy to take possession of zakat from the donor and also instructs them to pay off their debts with those funds then it will be permissible for the proxy to pay off the debts using the zakat funds. Similarly, the zakat recipient could just appoint the creditor themselves to take possession of the zakat funds on behalf of the zakat recipient and then with the consent of the recipient use that to pay off the debt.

If however, the recipient has not appointed a proxy, then the third party cannot pay of that particular poor individuals zakat using the zakat funds. The reason for this is that zakat needs to enter into the ownership of the poor person first. Hence, either they need to take possession of the zakat funds or instruct a third party to do so on their behalf. Without doing so the funds have not gone to a valid recipient of zakat, rather, they have gone to the third party and then directly to the creditor both of whom it seems are not valid recipients of zakat.

الدر المختار وحاشية ابن عابدين (رد المحتار) (2/ 344)
ويشترط أن يكون الصرف (تمليكا) لا إباحة كما مر (لا) يصرف (إلى بناء) نحو (مسجد و) لا إلى (كفن ميت وقضاء دينه) أما دين الحي الفقير فيجوز لو بأمره

قوله: فيجوز لو بأمره) أي يجوز عن الزكاة على أنه تمليك منه والدائن يقبضه بحكم النيابة عنه ثم يصير قابضا لنفسه فتح

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel