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Is it permissible to use Zakat funds (money and gold) to purchase food, clothing, and supplies for an orphanage that includes non-orphaned children whose parents are unable to provide for them?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the children are poor and needy, they are entitled to zakat, whether they are orphans or not. A poor person is one who does not find enough to suffice them. If the poverty of those residing in the house is established, there is no impediment to giving zakat to their guardian to purchase their needs with it. It is not permissible for the zakat payer to directly give them clothes or food, because most scholars prohibited giving zakat in kind, and even those who permitted it restricted it to cases where it is more beneficial for the poor, which is not applicable here.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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