Is it permissible for a wife to give zakat to her poor and low-income husband?

Scholars differed on the permissibility of a wife giving her zakat to her husband, with two opinions:

1. First Opinion: Prohibition. This is the view of Abu Hanifa and some jurists. Their argument is that a man is to his wife as a woman is to her husband, and a husband is prohibited from giving his zakat to his wife.

2. Second Opinion: Permissibility. This is the view of the majority of jurists, such as Al-Thawri and Al-Shafi'i. It is also one of the two narrations from Malik and Ahmad, and the madhhab of Ibn Hazm. They cited the hadith of Zaynab, the wife of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, when she asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, whether her charity to her poor husband and orphans in her care would be sufficient. He replied: "You will have two rewards: the reward of kinship and the reward of charity."

The preponderant opinion is permissibility, due to the hadith of Zaynab and because the wife is not obligated to spend on her husband, whereas he is obligated to spend on her. This removes the prohibitive differentiating analogy.

As for the argument that the charity in the hadith was voluntary and not obligatory zakat, this is refutable because the sufficiency of charity means the discharge of one's obligation. Furthermore, the Prophet's, peace and blessings be upon him, omission of detailed inquiry is considered equivalent to a general ruling, thus including both obligatory and voluntary charity.