Zakah: Payment to
hospitals
Q733 :Is it appropriate to pay zakah money to
hospitals? Some people claim that this is not acceptable even if the
money is utilized for the treatment of destitute patients. Please
comment.
A733 : If we are certain that the zakah we pay to a
hospital will definitely be used for the treatment of poor and needy
people, who themselves qualify as beneficiaries of zakah, then that is
a legitimate use of zakah money. But if the hospital will mix zakah
money with its overall revenue and use it toward the payment of
salaries and administrative costs, then zakah cannot be used for that
purpose. If people in a poor locality want their local clinic or
hospital to benefit by the zakah of rich people who may be approached
for help, they have to persuade the hospital to have a separate account
which it uses for the treatment and food of very poor patients. When
this is done, it will be perfectly appropriate to pay their zakah into
that account of the hospital, [and be] assured that its use is
legitimate.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )