Zakat

[Believer1985]

:salam2:

I have a question about paying Zakat. This year will be my first time paying zakat. I asked my husband about it last night and he said he'd been paying my zakat for me in previous years, without my knowledge. i wondered how that was since he'd need to know the value and weight of my gold etc, but he said he'd just been giving out a random amount. And, to make it worse, he'd been sending this money to his mother who lives in another country. I know his mother is extremely materialistic and money-hungry so it worried me that he might do the same this year. So, I want to ask, just to be sure:

1) How exactly is zakat calculated

2) Who are you meant to give it to?

I said I want to give it to our local mosque, but my husband said it is important to see if anyone in our family needs it and to distribute it among them. I don't want this money going anywhere near his mother. She'd probably just spend it on shopping. Please help.


PS I am on maternity leave from work and not getting paid much from there. Am I even entitled to pay zakat?

 

[Tabassum07]

:salam2:,

Sister, your husband can not give zakah to his mother. It's the *duty* of the son to look after his mother and therefore a zakah to her is not acceptable. Here's what Islamqa says on the matter:

I have a question about zakat and who it can be given to. This is my case, I would like to give the zakat money to my parents as my father is not working and is to old to do so,he has 4 children in his care one of which is 30 years old and disable, can i give my zakat to them or my sister as they all are a very poor family?


Praise be to Allaah.

This question deals with two topics:

1 – The ruling on giving zakaah to parents.

Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “The Muslim cannot give his zakaah to his parents or to his children; rather he has to spend on them from his wealth if they need that and he is able to spend on them.”

From al-Fataawa al-Jaami’ah, vol. 1, p. 306

2 – Giving zakaah to one’s siblings. Please se Question No. 22177.

To answer your question, zakah is calculated by figuring out the sum total of all the cash / bank balance / wealth / jewellery you've held on to for an entire lunar year, and then you calculate 2.5% of that amount which is the zakah. So you add up all the money you have in savings for a year. Calculate how much your gold is worth going by the current market gold rate and then donate your zakah to the needy.

The Quran gives a list of 8 categories of people whom you can give zakah to. Here is the explanation in detail (http://www.islamqa.com/en/ref/46209/zakaah).