Question
Question: Is it permissible to disburse zakat, or expiation (kaffārah), or fiṭrah to one who is suspected of secretly disobeying Allah, or to one whom we do not see maintaining the prayers in the mosque, or the like?
Answer
Answer: What appears to me is that it is permissible to disburse zakat, expiations, and fiṭrah to those mentioned in the question. The proof:
1 - The hadith: “I have been commanded to take it from your rich and return it to your poor.” It is no secret that, in the time of the Prophet—May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—there were among the Muslims those who disobeyed Allah in secret, and those who did not assiduously attend the prayers in the mosque, and among them were … and …; yet the Messenger of Allah—May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—did not exclude any of the poor among the Muslims, even though among them were hypocrites and sinners. From this it is understood that outward Islam suffices without probing and investigation, and that the justice (uprightness) of the poor person is not a condition. We have not seen anyone requiring in the poor the same uprightness that is required in a witness, a judge, a prayer leader, or a guardian of an orphan, etc.—except that the jurists of the madhhab did not permit disbursing to an open sinner (fāsiq), meaning one whose sinfulness is known or notorious.
2 - Zakat is taken from the wealthy among the Muslims—whether sinners or not—and it is disbursed to their poor—whether sinners or not.
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1
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