Question:
786
As-salamu alaykum: We would like to extend our salaams to Maulana Shaykh Hisham and all of the mashaykh of eshaykh.com and to express that we are very thankful for their assistance and attendance to our needs, as we are very ignorant people and were it not for their guidance, Al-hamduli-Llah w’ash-shukruli-Llah we would not have any opportunity to correct our situation. May Allah Ta’ala bless you all abundantly!
THE QUESTION: Is it valid to give sadaqah to non-Muslims? We live in rural Wisconsin it is more convenient for us to give to the local food pantry, etc. Is this acceptable?
Answer:
`Alaykum as-Salam,
Amin and may Allah Most High bless you and yours.
Yes, giving voluntary charity (sadaqah) to non-Muslims is permissible as the Holy Prophet (upon him and his family blessings and peace) commanded Asma’ bint Abi Bakr (Allah be well-pleased with her and her father) to support her mother Qayla bint `Abd al-`Uzza financially when she visited her in Madina, although she told him that her mother was a polytheist who still “abhorred Islam” (wa-hiya raghima/raghiba) (Bukhari and Muslim). Our Mother `A’isha, her sister, also gave in charity to a Jewish woman who then supplicated on her behalf: “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave” in the time of the Prophet (Bukhari and Muslim).
The only precondition is, as mentioned in the Qur’an (60:8-9), that it not be given to those who openly fight Muslims.
دِيَـٰرِكُمۡ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمۡ وَتُقۡسِطُوٓاْ إِلَيۡہِمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُقۡسِطِينَ إِنَّمَا يَنۡہَٮٰكُمُ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلَّذِينَ قَـٰتَلُوكُمۡ فِى ٱلدِّينِ وَأَخۡرَجُوڪُم مِّن دِيَـٰرِكُمۡ وَظَـٰهَرُواْ عَلَىٰٓ إِخۡرَاجِكُمۡ أَن تَوَلَّوۡهُمۡۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمۡ فَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ
{Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just. Allah only forbids you, with regard to those who fight you for (your) Faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support (others) in driving you out, from turning to them (for friendship and protection). It is such as turn to them (in these circumstances) that do wrong.} 60:8-9
As for disbursing obligatory alms (zakat) to non-Muslims, it is categorically impermissible by consensus (Ibn al-Mundhir, “Ishraf and Ijma`”; Ibn al-Mughallis, “Mudih”; Nawawi,”Majmu`”; Ibn Qudama, “Mughni” and “al-Sharh al-Kabir”; Ibn Qattan, “Iqna`”; etc.). Also, it is on the basis of the hadith of the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) to Mu`adh b. Jabal when he sent him to Yemen: “Let them know it is taken from the wealthy among THEM [i.e. Muslims, since non-Muslims do not pay zakat] and returned to the poor among THEM” (Bukhari and Muslim) among other evidence. Thus the verse determining the lawful recipients of zakat (9:60) refers to Muslims exclusively, i.e. those poor and needy are Muslims, as well as the mu’allafat al-qulub i.e. new Muslims.
إِنَّمَا ٱلصَّدَقَـٰتُ لِلۡفُقَرَآءِ وَٱلۡمَسَـٰكِينِ وَٱلۡعَـٰمِلِينَ عَلَيۡہَا وَٱلۡمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُہُمۡ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَٱلۡغَـٰرِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱبۡنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِۖ فَرِيضَةً۬ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَڪِيمٌ۬
{Alms are for the poor and the needy, and those employed to administer the (funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to Truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer: (thus is it) ordained by Allah and Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.} 9:60
A contemporary scholar (Qaradawi in his book Fiqh al-Zakat) reinterpreted the hadith of Mu`adh and gave the object “them” two discrepant meanings united by one locality, to mean first the Muslims of that locality, and second the people of that locality regardless of religious community. He further took the Hanafi madhhab’s permission of spending zakat al-fitr on non-Muslims as an analogical basis to extend the same status to zakat monies. Finally he cited the following purported exceptions to the above ruling of consensus:
– `Ikrima’s fatwa that ‘the needy’ (masakin) in the verse of zakat recipients means the People of the Book. (Tabari, tafsir, under verse 9:60)
– The position related from Ibn Sirin and al-Zuhri that the kuffar may be given from the monies of zakat. (al-Nawawi, “Majmu`”, 6:221)
– The fatwa of Imam Zufar that Ahl al-Kitab may be recipients on the basis of legal reasoning (qiyas). (Sarakhsi, “Mabsut” 2:202-203)
– Sayyiduna `Umar sometimes using monies which – are understood to be obligatory monies – toward helping Christian lepers and poor Jews in the Levant. (Ibn Abi Shayba, “Musannaf“)
However, the above evidence is far from probative. It is well-established that Sayyidina `Umar completely forbade giving non-Muslims any part of zakat monies as narrated by al-Qasim b. Sallam in “al-Amwal” (p. 276), al-Bayhaqi in the “Sunan” (7:20) and others. He also forbade that non-Muslims be ever employed as zakat-collectors lest they end up deserving payment out of it (Qal`ahji, “Mawsu`al Fiqh” `Umar b. al-Khattab p. 470). Similarly what is reported from the three Successors is unverified, and al-Sarakhsi rejected Zufar’s reasoning on the basis of the hadith of Mu`adh already cited. All this cannot, in conscience, constitute a solid basis for worship away from what the Ummah and its schools verified and agreed upon.
The early jurists further discussed whether the mu’allafat al-qulub are not only the new Muslims who need help and support from the Ummah but also non-Muslims
(i) whose evil needs to be deflected through material blandishments in vulnerable times, or (ii) whose hearts may be or become inclined to Islam. (Giving to the latter category presupposes that it must be made clear the gift is on the part of Muslims for such a gift to
be valid.) However, the Sunnah basis for this is unestablished, as the scholars said that in Prophetic times these gifted monies came out of the Khumus (Fifth), i.e. spoils of war, not from the zakat (Nawawi, “Majmu`” 6:181). It is also established that the Rightly-Guided Caliphs did not use zakat monies as charity for the unbelievers (Nawawi, “Majmu`”
6:179-183). At most such charity can be given, in the context of “non-Muslim mu’allafat al-qulub, either to neutralize their harm or to attract them to Islam”, from other than zakat monies, as sadaqah (Qaffal al-Shashi, “Hilyat al-`Ulama‘” 3:154).
And Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
