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What is the ruling on a son taking Zakat money from his father when he is one of those eligible for Zakat, knowing that returning the money might cause a severing of kinship ties? And is it permissible to take it as a loan to be repaid later?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Zakat is obligatory on trade goods and the earnings from wedding halls. The recipients of zakat are specified in eight categories in His Almighty's saying: {Indeed, [prescribed] charitable donations are only to be given to the poor and the needy, and to those who work on [collecting] them, and to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to [free] captives, and to those in debt, and for the cause of Allah, and to the stranded traveler; a duty ordained by Allah. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.} It is not permissible to give zakat to one's ascendants or descendants whose maintenance is obligatory upon the zakat payer. If a child is needy and his father is wealthy, the child's maintenance is obligatory upon his father, and therefore, it is not permissible for the father to give his zakat to his child. If the father insists on giving the money to the child as zakat, the child should take the money and spend it on the legitimate zakat beneficiaries.

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

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