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Who is entitled to receive zakat? |
The eight categories of zakat recipients are:
1) The poor: generally includes individuals unable to provide for themselves and their families for the foreseeable future (as some jurists note, for the year ahead) with the typical requirements necessary for living for individuals of a similar social standing of their locality, either due to an insufficiency of wealth or an inability to work; for those permanently unable to provide for themselves, such as the incapacitated poor, or the widow without support, an ongoing zakat-based pension may be arranged;
2) Those short of money: includes individuals whose temporary circumstances cause them to become poor, in which case the general guideline for determining “poverty” is followed (as above, “the poor”), such as those who do not have access to their money, whether due to separation or being owed money, and thereby become poor;
3) Zakat collectors: includes individuals and institutions authorized to distribute zakat, provided the entire zakat amount is given to the poor and not deducted from to pay for administrative expenses;
4) Those whose hearts are to be won over: includes Muslims whose faith may be weak and whose service to the ummah may be improved by a monetary incentive; Hanafis and Malikis consider this category to be unique to the early generations of Muslims when the ummah was in a state of tremendous expansion; its abrogation during the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr and Hazrat Umar (Allah be well pleased with them both) is believed to be final, but other jurists still regard its validity as applicable to, for instance, new converts to Islam estranged from their families;
5) The slave seeking ransom: includes providing a slave the funds to purchase freedom; it is worth noting that the practice of slavery, which began before the coming of Islam and which Islamic rulings themselves helped to phase out, is entirely distinguishable from the colonial variety which provided slaves with neither legal right nor legitimate recourse to freedom, as this zakat provision does;
6) The indebted: includes those whose debts exceed their zakatable wealth and thereby become “poor” or “short of money” because they are burdened with a debt, and neither their work nor their surplus wealth is sufficient to repay the debt;
7) Those fighting for the cause of Allah: includes salaries, weaponry, clothing, equipment, and the like for individuals actively participating in military jihad for the establishment of Islam, and their non-participating dependents, who have no other source of income, such as from their government;
8) The needy traveler: includes individuals traveling 81km or more from their city’s limits (or what is normally considered to be the limits of one’s area of residence) who are short of money (having spent or lost it, or having been stolen from) and are reasonably unable to access their money and require expense for food, travel and other necessities, whether they qualify for nisab when resident or not, and even if they are otherwise wealthy.
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