can i give Zakat to Shia family

Society Religion & Philosophy
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a family that I know in Pakistan is in bad financial shape and I was sending them money. I know that the family is eligible for zakat, but the guy’s name starts with sayed. Can I give them zakat?

My question is mainly to shia brothers, but all can answer.

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can i give Zakat to Shia family

Interesting question first thing that pops to my mind is that theyre muslim also.? Should it matter.? I'm curious to see replies never realised there was any such restrictions in place

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

I don't think this should be the question of Shia/Sunni. From what I know, Syeds are not eligible for Zakat.

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

if the family is indeed descendants of the Prophet SAWW then giving any form of charity, sadqa or zakat, will be haraam........needy descendants of the Prophet can receive khums as per the command of Quran.....but u being Sunni probably do not practice it.........but shud u really want to help them then there is also an option to help them out via hadiya/gift..........

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can i give Zakat to Shia family

Yes they are Muslims off course.

Question is not because of Muslim, but because many of them have syed next to their name. Is that because of love for ahl-e-bait or is it lineage , and even if it is because of lineage, can we give to them? Is ruling still the same after 1500 years?

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can i give Zakat to Shia family

Yes nussairie, I don't know much about khums. Is there anyway of finding out if a family is real Sayed?

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Spiral I asked because more Shia families are Sayed (at least by name) then Sunnis, so could it be that some of them might be Sayed by name?

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

uff, you should mention the difference in opinion between you and mufti desai, no?

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Never heard of any of this before :konfused:

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

TLK, khums is 1/5th of what was earned as a surplus by the Islamic state as ghanimat in the early days of Islam...........here is the Quranic verse...

Know that whatever of a thing you acquire, a fifth of it is for Allah, for the Messenger, for the near relative, and the orphans, the needy, and the wayfarer...(8:41)

From Sunni perspective from Sahi Bukhari too you could read many traditions on prohibition of zakat for the descendants of the Prophet........one such is when Imam Hasan and Hussein playing with dates put one in mouth and Prophet stops them since the dates were of charity........

As for being able to tell if a given person is a real Syed or not then I am afraid there is no easy way if any to do it...........u just have to take their word for it and not pay them zakat as precaution.........instead u cud gift them the money as I said before......u dont have to tell them all these details ofcourse.......if they r real syeds then they should know enough Shariah to inquire the source of money before accepting it.........

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

If they are sayed then they won’t accept zaakat. You can give them money as gift but it won’t count as zaakat.

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

My personal opinion - You can !

Chairty starts from home , if there is some one needy among your relatives , you should cover them first ... No matter whether they are syed or not .

if they are financially deprived , you can give ZakaaT to them.

Sadaq , Zakat , Khums , they all are different ways to cover one basic motive .. Help the needy ones among us !

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Good reply guy. I agree with bebo and Nussairee that they will ask if they feel concerned. Also agree with naabigh that if someone is financially deprived then we should not "punish" them for being sayed. Yes we can all gift the money too but how many times you take out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to give out gift money? That is why zakat is there.

Shardmanny, I don't want to turn the convo towards who thinks whether Shias are Muslims or not. I think that if a person believes in first kalima, he/ she is Muslim.

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Bro, prohibition of zakat for Syeds is to save their honor and not to punish them..........And when I say hadiya then I do not mean giving money like you have understood.....you can pass the money in exactly the same manner as zakat but with intention of hadiya and more importantly not counting the amount given towards your zakat payable......I hope I made sense.....I have only spoken b/c u asked for a Shia opinion.....

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

^^ So which one is a Farz ? Hadiya or Zakaat ?

what if some one from my family ( I am a Fatimi Sadaat ) is in financial need , but instead of helping him/her , just because he/she is a syed , I cant give him my zaakat ( which is a faraz , I must offer , if I am eligible ) , and I have to wait till i get some extra money , which I can hadiya him/her ..

I simply don't understand that !

And please dont make Zakaat something , which if given - disgrace some one ... There is no honor thing involved .

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Peace,

What I read and heard that "Give charity to needy peoples" but never heard/read "only to a certain group of peoples". Helping others is an act of 'Humanity' and as a Muslims we believe all Humans are from one father and mother so paying charity regardless to different beliefs to our brother/sisters is 'oky'.

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Zakaat is forbidden for the descendants of the Prophet. That is something that all the schools agree on. If you think otherwise then I can discuss no more...

[quote]
what if some one from my family ( I am a Fatimi Sadaat ) is in financial need , but instead of helping him/her , just because he/she is a syed , I cant give him my zaakat ( which is a faraz , I must offer , if I am eligible ) , and I have to wait till i get some extra money , which I can hadiya him/her ..

I simply don't understand that !
[/quote]

In that case they are eligible for khums which is a far bigger portion of money than the mandatory zakat. For example, I pay close to a $1,000 zakat annually but my khums is about 3 times of that which is exclusive for the sadat.

[quote]
And please dont make Zakaat something , which if given - disgrace some one ... There is no honor thing involved .
[/QUOTE]

Zakaat is paid to purify the earnings.....similarly in fiqh sadqaat are commanded as kaffarah for sins, i.e. they wash away the impurity of sins...........family of the Prophet is said to have been promised purification from Allah swt in the Quran Suratul Ahzab verse 33..........thus perhaps one reason of the ruling......as for disgrace, let me give u an example.........if security guards exempt a special guest from body search at an event then it doesnt mean that the other public members who have been body searched or are going to be searched disrespected or disgraced.........

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Try searching Sahi bukhari and Muslim....

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Peace Nussairee,

As is said earlier I never heard/read that 'pay zakat only to a certain group of peoples' or 'don't pay to this or that group of peoples'. If there is any verse from Qur'an you would like to me to search it, than plz quote here of pm me. In the meanwhile I'll see what I can find in Hadiths.

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Re: can i give Zakat to Shia family

Who is a Sayed...

I am a non muslim. I certainly feel that we should not differentiate between people based on caste etc.
Also the argument saying that the Prophet's (PBUH) descendants are not eligible for Zakat is not right. The descendants would have multiplied and my question is how would you find out if a person is actually the descendant.