Entitled Recipients of Zakaah
Entitled Recipients of Zakaah:
1-The poor: They are those who do not have what is enough for their living, or those who have only some of their needs to maintain life. So, they are to take from Zakaah what suffices all their needs of the legal expenditures such as food, clothes, rent of the house and the like and basic needs of the furniture and machines of the house with what suit them.
2-The needy: They are those who have most of their needs of the year or half of it. So, they are to be given of Zakaah the rest of their needs to suffice them for a whole year.
3- Those employed to collect Zakaah. They are those people who collect Zakaah from its givers, keep it and then distribute it among those entitled to take it, according to the orders of the Muslims’ ruler. They are to be given from Zakaah in return for the effort they exert, except when those in authority already give them salaries from the Public Treasury of Muslims in return for their work, as it is the case nowadays. Thus, it is prohibited for them to take from Zakaah any more (since they are already paid for their work from another source).
4-The fourth category is those given Zakaah to bring their hearts together for Islam.They are those who are expected to embrace Islam i.e those who have tendency to enter Islam. Moreover, Muslim can be given Zakaah to strengthen his faith or to make his peer of the non-Muslim embrace Islam. A disbeliever may also be give from Zakaah in order to withhold his evil or evil of others than him from Muslims provided that he is an obedient leader among his people.
5- The fifth category involves the slaves indebted to get their freedom and who cannot pay their debts. In this case, such as a slave is to be given what makes him able to pay his debt in order to have freedom. It is permissible for the Muslim to buy a slave with the money of his Zakaah and emancipate him, and it is also permissible for him to the ransom of a Muslim captive from the money he has assigned for Zakaah, for such as act leads to emancipating Muslim captives.
6-The sixth category involves those in debt whether the one who has fallen into debt for the sake of others in order to amend matters of difference among people or the one who falls in debt for his own sake and cannot pay it.
7- The seventh category is that spent in the Cause of Allaah The Almighty i.e. for fighting for the Cause of Allaah The Almighty.
8-The eighth category is the stranded traveler. He is a traveler who loses or runs out of his provisions and becomes stranded before completing his journey.
It is permissible to spend the whole amount of Zakaah on only one of the aforementioned eight categories of the entitled recipient of Zakaah.
It is sufficient for the giver of Zakaah to give it to only one person entitled to take it. Moreover, it is recommended for the giver of Zakaah to give it to his close relatives who are entitled to take it as long as they are not among those whom he is legally required to maintain.
