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What is the ruling on eating and drinking from the wealth of a father who does not pay Zakat, and is it permissible or forbidden? And how can he be informed of this?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Zakat is a growth for wealth, a purification for the soul, and a blessing for its owner in this world and the hereafter. He who does not pay his zakat will find his wealth a burden upon him on the Day of Judgment and will be tormented by it. The Shafi'is held that zakat is attached to the essence of the wealth itself. According to this view, it is not permissible for your father to dispose of his wealth by selling or other means before paying zakat, because a portion of his wealth, which is the amount of zakat, is not owned by him. Another group of scholars held that zakat is attached to the dhimma (financial liability) and not to the wealth itself. In this case, it is permissible for your father to dispose of his wealth by selling or other means, but he would be sinful for not having paid the zakat. There is no harm for you in taking from your father's wealth or eating from what he has purchased; the disagreement is only regarding the dislike of eating from it.

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

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