Suhaib Webb – Zakat alFitr Questions about Paying, Distributing and Missing Payment
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Let's talk quickly about the timings of zakatul
fitra. That's another
question that, people have been asking, and like
what if they forgot to pay it? Can
they pay it a few days before?
And so on and so forth. So the
obligation of zakat al fitr,
the obligatory time to pay it is, is
is,
you know, sort of disagreed upon, if you
will, dispute it amongst the Maliki Medheb in
2 primary opinions. Number 1 is
the night before Eid that Maghrib.
Number 2 is the dawn of Eid day.
This is rooted in a in a
actually,
the disagreement
is around the same hadith. You find that
a lot of times.
Scholars will actually use the same piece of
evidence, but they come with 2 different
conclusions.
Happens quite a bit. It's very interesting. And
that shows you the beauty and the leeway
and the layers of maturity,
of Islam as a legal system, alhamdulillah. But
within the med hab, you have these two
opinions. Maghrib
Fecher,
that you gotta do it. Gotta do it.
Okay?
What is the recommended time to distribute mister
Kathol Fitchat? The time recommended time to distribute
it is after dawn
and before the Eid prayer, which may be
impossible institutionally.
Maybe impossible. As we have an axiom, commands
are based on ability. So
institutionally, I've been there. You you even at
MSA,
you have so many people you can't get
it out to them before Eid prayer. It
happens.
It happens.
The hadith of Abu Hurairah, prophet said, what
I commanded you to do, do it the
best you can.
Alright?
But ideally based on the hadith of, ibn
Amr
from Abu Hari Muslim,
that the prophet
said it should be
it should be distributed before the people go
to pray, eat.
Right? If possible.
The permissible time to distribute zikat al fitr,
it can be distributed,
you know,
all of the day of Eid till sunset
and even after in
difficult circumstance.
Then somebody may ask them, what if I
failed to pay
it on Eid day?
Some people think that, oh, if I didn't
pay it, then as soon as the day
is over, the obligation is removed from me.
Come on, bro.
You know, you gotta be you gotta be
honest with yourself before you can be honest
with Allah.
Zikatul Fitr does not expire. It's an axiom.
Zikatul Fitr does not expire
on the sunset
of Eid. It is a continue continuous obligation.
If it's left unfulfilled a person is sinful.
And if they go beyond the time which
it should be paid without a legitimate excuse.
They're sinful.
People ask, can I pay it before e
day, And within the MedHab, the strong opinion
is 2 days before? There is an opinion
within the MedHab that's said 3 days before,
but the strong opinion is up to 2
days before. Again, I I wanna encourage you
to do that because as someone that used
to serve in the community, it's very difficult
on institutions to suddenly receive all this stuff
you have, like, an hour or 2 to
distribute. But when you give zakat tofitter
a few days before then, that gives the
institution
the capacity and bandwidth to distribute the second
takabish. You gotta think, man, institutions are under
so much pressure
these last 10 days of Ramadan, especially as
they push into Eid. So when you give
it 2 days before, a day before, you're
facilitating
no matter how you give it, whether with
food stuffs or money,
it it makes things easier for people.
Okay?
Can you distribute,
zakatofitter
before Eid?
Okay.
Can you actually distribute
the evidence for this actually is the allowance
to pay zakatul fitr is mentioned in the
Muwata
as
one who sent his
to the zakat collectors
2 or 3 days before, and that's where
the difference comes in. Was it 2 or
3 days?
Can you give any cash? We have an
entire
discussion on that within the MedHab. No.
But outside of the MedHab, yes. And we
have our own separate sort of discussion on
that that I'll share with you.