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Is it permissible to give zakat on money to a struggling brother whose income is insufficient to cover his expenses and accumulated debts from credit cards?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible to give zakat to relatives for whom the giver is not obliged to provide, such as a brother, sister, nephew, niece, paternal uncle, or maternal uncle, if they are eligible recipients of zakat, such as being poor or indebted for permissible reasons. Giving to them is prioritized due to the hadith: "Charity given to the poor is a single charity, while charity given to a relative is two: maintaining kinship ties and charity." It is recommended to give zakat to eligible relatives. If the brother mentioned has insufficient income for his expenses or has a permissible debt, it is permissible to give him from zakat. It is advised to repent from using prohibited credit cards.

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

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