Mon 13 رمضان 1447 (02 Mar 2026)
[A Woman Receiving Zakat While Owed a Large Dowry by Her Husband]
Mufti:
Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady
Fatwa number: 17180
Number of views: 1
[A Woman Receiving Zakat While Owed a Large Dowry by Her Husband]
Fatwa number: 17180
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Question: A man had been giving a woman from the zakat of his wealth for a long time. Then a rift occurred between her and her husband, at which point it became clear to this man that the woman is owed, by her husband, a dowry amounting to thirty thousand Saudi riyals. The woman is religious and did not know that her dowry prevents her from taking zakat. What is the way forward?
Answer—and Allah is the Granter of success: So long as the matter is as stated in the question, what has passed is valid; neither the giver nor the recipient bears any liability for that.
This is because zakat need not be redone except if it was disbursed to a non-eligible recipient, by consensus. This woman is not such a case. According to Imām al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad—may Allah have mercy on him—as in al-Iʿtiṣām: the woman does not own the dowry until she actually receives it. He adduced as proof that Allah the Exalted called it a “gift” (niḥlah), and a gift is that which is given; and, based on what we have mentioned, she is not obligated to pay zakat on the dowry for the years that have passed.
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1
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