Charities converting zakat cash into services and goods

A question about charities converting zakat cash into services or goods such as medicine and food, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that charities act as agents of zakat payers and may not do so without the poor recipient's permission, the exception being the state when it collects zakat and acts in the recipient's interest while giving him ownership. ¹

The questioner asked whether charities may convert the cash they receive from zakat payers into services or goods such as medicine or food. ¹

The Department answered that zakat is an obligation defined by the texts, and that converting cash due to the poor into goods and in-kind items oversteps its rules, except for actions by the ruler that achieve a recognised interest for the poor while giving them ownership of the zakat. ¹ It said charities are in principle agents of zakat payers for delivering zakat to those entitled to it, so they may not convert it from cash into goods, because the money is the right of the poor and cannot be disposed of without their permission. ¹ It said that when the state collects zakat it may convert it from one kind to another in the interest of the poor while giving them ownership, because collecting and distributing zakat is a public function entrusted to it, and the payer's obligation is discharged once he hands it over. ¹ For this it relied on Ibn al-Rif'a's statement in Kifayat al-Nabih that zakat is a general provision prepared for public needs, and on Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's remark in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj that the ruler's receipt of zakat lies between pure guardianship and agency, and that he may require the poor recipient to buy something for a public interest. ¹ It concluded that charities may not convert zakat funds from one kind to another without the poor recipient's permission, and that the exception belongs to the ruler alone, with ownership given to the poor within the stated limits. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3926, dated 27 November 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.