Suhaib Webb – Zakat alFitr Questions about Paying, Distributing and Missing Payment

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.