Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Simplified Zakat Guidance Zakat on Children’s Assets

Bismillah AR Rahman AR Rahim today with regard to the cart, I want to

speak about assets that are kept on the side for children. So

number one, if they are the children's assets in the sense

that they were given gifts, or eat or other times, or it's an

inheritance that the child has received and too young, to manage

it for themselves, and we as parents, or uncle's or whoever it

is looking after those assets, then remember, there is no circuit

and children for the cat to be wajib, an obligatory a person must

be seen, and they must be also adult past maturity. So for

children, they could be millionaires, they do not have to

pay any circuit. That's quite clear. However, there's always

some other money sometimes which or, for example, somebody

contacted me recently that they've got some jewelry from their mother

that they would actually don't want for themselves, they want to

dedicate it to their daughter, and keep it for them, or they've got

some money that they want to save up for the children to be only

used by the children. So now this is where it gets a bit

complicated. As a as a father, the father is the generally the

representative of the child to take ownership of any money for

the child's benefit, and then basically keep the money for the

child. So now if you do have a separate pot pot, a separate bank

account in which the child's wished, money or assets, whatever

they may be, whether that be gold or silver, whether that be

something else is kept for the child is not something that you

dip in whenever you want. And also consider that you can just use it

whenever you want. It's something which is purely dedicated for the

children. And if you do take from there, then you pay back. And you

know that this is definitely for the children, then there will be

no zakat on that money. Because it's the child has become the

child's right. So while it was yours, and you dedicate to the

child, it's like the father who's taken the money dedicated to the

child, it's like he's taken ownership as the child, right? So

that way it becomes for the children, then there's no zakat on

that. But remember, if it's for dual purpose, where you hope it's

for the children, but then you're going to tap into it whenever you

want without paying it back, then in that case, you will have to pay

zakat because it means that you have not really given it and

dedicated to the children. Now, when the child becomes mature, he

doesn't have to base the guard on it straightaway, when he becomes

mature, then he will have to wait a year. And if after a year, he

still has over the nisab amount of wealth that he started with,

at least in his hobby started with, then he will pay a year

afterwards. But that will be discussed later. Now, specifically

for the UK, and any other country where they provide children with

welfare, with benefits. Or you can say Child Benefit, or whatever

other benefits that are provided to children like the child trust

fund or something like that. And whatever that is called in

different parts of the world. So generally, what happens is that

the government provides a certain amounts of money to go to spending

on the children. So there's a difference in terms of the

different things that different governments may provide, if it's

money, and funds, which the government provides for the

children to be saved for the children. And that's very clear,

like there was a, there was a scheme called the child, the child

Trust Fund scheme, where there were certain amounts of money that

a child would get at birth and then at a certain age, and that

was not to be spent by anybody else, it was supposed to be

actually invested for the child to maybe pay for schooling fees or

whatever later on, then that is the child's money, there's going

to be no zakat on that. However,

if it's child benefit in the UK, or any other benefit of that

nature, that's actually given to the parents to be used for the

children. And parents, if they're doing their job, right, they're

already going to be spending on their children, they're providing

the home, the child is using the home, they're providing heating,

they're providing food, they're providing clothing, where is that

money coming from? Now that if the parent says that the child,

there's a lot of parents who actually feel and who think that

child benefits is only for the children, it can't be used

otherwise, it's true, it's given by provided by the government to

all families, as far as I understand, right for the

children. But what I'm saying is that, if you're already spending

from your own funds, to the upkeep, the feeding, and clothing,

and diapers and everything else of the child, Then aren't you already

spending that amount that is provided by the going to child

benefit. So that's why it's not necessary to keep the child's

benefit separately, and leave it for the child because the child

still has to survive, and that you're spending on them. So you

can actually take it from there and consider that to be part of

that. The only time that this would be otherwise is if a parent

is deprived or parent guardian where it's depriving the child and

making them suffer, they don't have the food to eat or whatever

and this money they're using on themselves, then that is where

that would be wrong. But otherwise, if you're using that

amount of money on the child, then that's been spent for anyway so

that's, that's why they're

Money is actually part of the family pot to be spent on the

children and, and so on. However, if somebody wants, if they feel

that I'm spending my own money on the child,

and I should keep this separately, that will go back to what I

initially said earlier that if they dedicate that to the child

fully, not to tap into it themselves, then that will become

the child's exclusively and that means whatever you spend, that

would be your, you know, your gift to the child, which is fine. So, I

hope this, there is absolutely no harm. And I want to make this

clear because some people feel guilty that they using the child

benefit. As they said, if you're spending that much or more on the

child anyway, you should absolutely not feel guilty that

this money is not being kept aside because that's not the purpose of

it is not to save up. That's not the purpose of it. It's to

actually help with the upkeep of that child.