Yasir Qadhi – Should I Focus on Paying My Zakat Locally or Abroad? Ask Shaykh YQ #192

			Brother Khalid from our own mission and community here, brother Khalid asks that he wants my advice
about where to give Zakat to should he gives the car to local charities should he gives the car to
overseas charities. Just some generic advice.
		

			One
		

			ami COVID, Nika Illa de Jalan, no, hey, la him first.
		

			Recovery.
		

			And the response to this is that, you know, we need to think about this from a modern lens, you
know, some of them have, they do have some position that Zakat should only be given locally and you
do not give you know, in any foreign land until you have distributed it all locally. And culturally
speaking, we Muslims of North America have the opposite problem where we don't give anything
locally, and we send everything overseas. So culturally, we have this mindset that Zakat should not
be given local, even though nobody says this folk wise. And what I feel is that there should be a
healthy diversity, we have to be realistic, the world is not globally connected. And there are
		

			crises that are so painful, and Allah has blessed generally speaking, the Muslims of the western
hemisphere of the Western world to have surplus of Zakat at Hamdulillah, Thurman Hamdulillah, and
large charities, organizations are based in England and in Canada and in Australia, and in America,
you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of charity are given to refugees around the world. I
myself have seen firsthand, I'm involved with a number of charities and I have traveled to refugee
camps around the globe. I have traveled to Syrian refugees in Turkey, I've traveled to Palestinian
refugees, I've traveled to other places, you know, Kashmir and the orphans over there. And
		

			Subhanallah I have seen firsthand that, you know, firstly, the surplus of wealth in the western
lands and secondly, more more value for your money $1, you know, in, in Kashmir is much more
powerful, you know, than $1 over here. So I have no hesitation in saying yes, we should send Zakat
to projects overseas that are healthy. However, however, however, make sure that we don't send it
all over there. Our problem is that culturally speaking, we tend to not think about locals zeca. And
that's a problem. We also have to realize our family and extended family has helped over us. So we
all might have a cousins or second cousins or a distant relative that is poor, impoverished, whether
		

			they're back home, we might have you know, somebody that's a widow in the family or somebody that
you know, a single lady with children, and she doesn't have a source of income. And these are our
extended relatives. So what my suggestion is, and it's not fair to just the suggestion is have three
categories in mind 1/3 of your circuit should go for your extended family or friends and
acquaintances 1/3 in your immediate circle, and 1/3 for your community that are poor, go to any
Masjid and ask them Do you have as a guide for local people okay, majority of messaged massage at
our Masjid here in East Plano, we have a separate Zakat fund for the Muslims of Dallas who cannot
		

			pay rent, there are refugees here there are people that need help any large message it will have as
a cat section to it. So tell them I want this for the local people of zakat. So 1/3 should be for
local, right. So 1/3 family wherever they are, if you have some distant cousin, you know back home
that needs to cut 1/3 family 1/3 local and 1/3 find projects that are in need, you have refugees,
you have Burma, you know Subhanallah today, I read that there was a massive fire in a Burmese
refugee camp and 10s of 1000s of people are homeless. So Pamela, you know, a little bit of money
that we send will go a long way over there, how can we not help our brothers and sisters out the
		

			people of that region cannot afford to sponsor those hundreds of 1000s of refugees, but at
hamdulillah many of us if we come together and I know of organizations that are in a specific niche
space me personally, I love niche based charities, groups of people, small groups, they started in
their own home and they have direct contacts with their extended relatives and family and they're
sending the money directly there. They're small, low key do these types of projects and of course,
the large charities are also doing a lot of good work and each one has a positive thing. So
inshallah Tada This is my generic advice in the end of the day, whichever one you give to it's all
		

			highlighted and legit and good but you ask my advice and this is my advice. 1/3 family and friends,
meaning those who are needing Of course 1/3 local, find them yourself or go to your Masjid and 1/3
International, you know, charities and causes And may Allah subhana wa tada accept from all of us
with that inshallah, I will see you all next week.
		

			Jacmel Lochhead set on wanting to live abroad again.