zakat and qurbani ?

[Sajid Karim]

Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

Imam Sahib appreciate you could answer this asap.Can zakat money be given towards qurbani for poor ?

[Imam]

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem,

Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu



Praise be to Allah who is the Mater of all the worlds, and Endless Blessings be upon Our Master, The Last Prophet of Islam (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam).


Jazak'Allah for your valued question. Zakat is fard upon every Muslim person who pays the minimum taxable income (nisab), for the purposes of zakat.


Zakat is given as one fourteeth, for the total income that one has saved for a period of one year. So if a person has saved five hundred pounds over a year, his zakat will be paid at twelve pounds and fifty pence. This twelve pounds and fifty pence will be spent as zakat for the poor, and is an obligation (fard) for zakat.


The Qurbani is wajib, but is a seperate demand of the shar'iyyah, during the tenth of dhil Hajjah, after the Eid prayer. The only similarity, is that all of your zakat, will be spent upon the poor and the needy, whereas one third of your qurbani shall be spent on the poor, a third for personal consumption, and a third for distribution amongst neighbours.


Another difference is that Zakat can be paid in cash, and can be used for anything that the needy requires, whereas the Qurbani, is the shedding of the blood afterwhich its use may also be consumed by, from the poor. Zakat can be paid any time of the year wheras the Qurbani for Eid, has its conditions, requirements, and stipulations, that also must be observed. Hence these two are to be treated as two seperate entities, as the commands of each entity may differ from one another.


However, this does not limit the amount of Qurbani that you perform. You may perform a Qurbani for the sake of paying your zakat to the poor, and you may also make a Qurbani for the sake of Eid al Adha, and have that distributed. Accordingly, you may on the same day, with the surplus money you have, make a sacrifice in the name of the Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam), as the same purpose of feeding the poor, yet the intention of giving zakat, performing the Qurbani of Eid al Adha, or any other sadaqah must be differentiated, as one act maybe fard (i.e. zakah), another wajib (i.e. Qurbani), and it could be that the third one be a nafil form of worship.


In any case, a person who has the financial means, should spend his zakah money seperately from his Qurbani, as the rewards are different, although the purpose of its use maybe the same.


May Allah the Almighty help us to be more generous, when the time comes in spending finance in His name, and may He give us all a good return, not only in this world, but also the hereafter.



Jazakallah humul khayr,


M. Waseem Ashrafi