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.

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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.