Zakah: Payment to support buying of
a house
Q736 :You have once stated that a person incurring
debt to buy a house may be helped with zakah funds. May I ask what sort
of a house he may buy and how big a loan he can incur? I find it
difficult to accept that such a person can receive zakah funds because
he is a house owner. What if the house is luxurious and the debts are
very heavy?
A736 : I stand by what I have said. I gave the
example that if a person has only 7,000 Riyals which is his total
savings and he buys a house for SR. 10,000, and he borrows the
difference, he may be helped by zakah funds. The fact that he has
become a house owner and if we calculate the price of his house as part
of his property, he will not qualify to be helped by zakah is not a
cause to change that ruling. Having a house where one wants to live
with one's family is an essential need and there is no harm if one has
to borrow a portion of the price of the house in order to make sure of
meeting that need. The same applies to a person who borrows some money
in order to buy clothes for himself or his family, or to get married or
to be medically treated or to buy furniture or to marry his son or to
compensate another person for a damage he may have caused to his
property, whether intentionally or not. As long as borrowing is not
considered to be unreasonable, then the debtor qualifies to benefit by
zakah. It is needless to say that a person who borrows money in order
to face an emergency or someone who suffers a loss of his property
through a disaster is a more urgent case. But this does not deprive the
other types [i.e. other legitimate beneficiaries] of their entitlement.
There are, however, certain conditions for a debt to qualify as zakah
beneficiary. The first is that he should be in need of help to settle
his debt. If he has enough moneys or goods which are sufficient to
settle his debts, then he does not qualify. Perhaps I should explain
that no person is required to sell articles which he needs in ordinary
life for settling his debts. If he has a carpet or some other articles
of furniture, he need not sell them. What we are speaking about here is
having things which he does not ordinarily need. If he has something
which he can use to settle part of the debt, he is given enough to
settle the remainder. The second condition is that his debt should
have been incurred for a legitimate purpose. If he has borrowed some
money to do something forbidden, such as buying intoxicants, or to
gamble or to throw a party in which the guests have a chance to do
something forbidden, then he may not be helped with zakah funds to
settle his debts. The third condition is that the debt is due to be
settled. If it is deferred, then help from zakah funds can also be
deferred. The fourth condition is that the debt must be due to a human
being. If it is to be atone for something one has committed in
violation of certain rules of Islam, and the debt is not due to a human
being, then the debtor may not be helped with zakah funds. I have
already said that the debt must have also been incurred in buying what
is reasonable. If one buys a house to live in and the house is of an
average standard comparable to his own, then that is reasonable. If the
earnings are average for his community but he buys a palatial house,
incurring a heavy debt, then he is not to be helped with zakah funds.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )