Taking zakat while holding an emergency fund

A question from partners in a grocery who saved an emergency fund while their salaries fall short, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that zakat is due on saved money that reaches the threshold and completes a year, and that the payer may not take his own zakat for himself. ¹

The questioner said he shares a grocery with his brother and sister, and they have saved money for emergencies because they have no health insurance; their zakat date is near and their salaries do not cover their living costs; he asked whether they may take from the zakat money. ¹

The Department answered that whoever owns the threshold amount for a full year must pay zakat to those entitled to it, whatever the reason for saving the money, and that God set out its recipients in the Qur'an. ¹ It said the payer may not pay it to himself, since that is neither paying nor transferring ownership, so he cannot be payer and recipient at once; nor may he give it, as relief for poverty, to those he must maintain; it quoted al-Khatib al-Shirbini's al-Iqna' on this. ¹ It concluded that the payer may not take his own zakat for himself, nor give it as poverty relief to dependants such as parents, wife and young children, while he holds savings he can spend from. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3852, dated 11 January 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 ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.