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Is Zakat obligatory on money invested abroad from which no profit has been made for a year, and is it permissible to give this Zakat to a brother in hardship who owns land he refuses to sell, or to a sister who needs money for medical treatment?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What some friends mentioned, that the money is not subject to zakat unless it is invested, is an incorrect statement. Rather, zakat is obligatory on it if it reaches the نصاب (minimum threshold) and a hawl (one lunar year) passes over it. It is not permissible to give zakat to a brother who owns a piece of land valued at 200,000 dollars, because he is considered wealthy. As for the sister whose husband's income is insufficient and who needs money for cancer and headache treatment, it is permissible to give her zakat, and she has a greater right to it.

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

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