Suhaib Webb – Sending Zakat Overseas
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Thank you for asking these questions. It's a
great question. So can you send your zakatomel
overseas? Same thing, by the way, for zakat
al fitr.
Can it be sent overseas for people who
are suffering?
SUNY legal scholars
generally discourage their practum practice of transferring
zakat beyond the distance at which we're allowed
to join the prayers.
Although, honestly, the evidence for that is not
strong, man, with respect,
to that position.
And there's some variation in the application of
that within schools.
Right? In the Maliki tradition, the Maliki Med
Heb,
while generally it agrees with the other schools,
there is an exception
attributed to Abdul Ahmed ibn Qasem, who's a
student of the Imam Malik and other students
of Imam Malik, not just him, and relied
upon for fatwa,
and that is transferring saka beyond the distance
to join prayers is deemed acceptable if there
is an emergency in that area.
Sakhnun
also had held this opinion, and Khalil addresses
it in his Muqtasr.
But Sakhnun said if the authorities are aware
of a significant need in other religion now
we have no authority. We have no amir.
So we each and every one of us
has to make this decision for ourselves.
They are permitted to allocate a portion of
the obligatory zakat for those areas. So I
encourage people to do both, give locally and
give international.
In situations of need, if it's essential to
give precedence
because it's essential to give precedence to aiding
those in distress. Again, we talk about the
axiom a lot. Right? Al Maqaseh tuqaddim arawasa'irihah.
The objective is giving precedence over.
As every Muslim, Sahin al says, should look
out for their fellow Muslim
and not neglect them or leave them in
harm.
And now we see in the situation, the
Gaza,
after the the bombing of those workers, and
we see the shutting down of
different, you know, charitable,
agencies, this this genocide that's happening, this starvation
that's happening, and then in Sudan, you have
a famine
Well, man, you know, this is not something
for which there's a moral dilemma to make
a call. So based on that and due
to the devastation overseas, I advise you, me
personally, to distribute zakat amongst the needy in
your local community and also
consider giving a portion of zakat to people
overseas.
This is also supported by the generality of
the verse that
that zakat is for the poor. It doesn't
doesn't
restrict. This is am, and there's no
if you take
with me. It's very universal. There's no restriction
there.
As well as the narrations
of Sayna Mo'ath which,
Buhari mentions, you know,
that
he distributed the zakat he took from Yemen
to people in Medina.
And there's a lot of discussions about that,
but that's the general meaning as Al Hafiz
ibn Hajar mentions that this is highly probable,
that that's what it meant. Took the zakat
from people in Yemen and distributed to the
underserved in Medina.
Also, make sure that when you are
designating your zakat to be sent overseas, you
tell the charity that you're donating to this
is the katul man.
Like, you have to do that.