[Ruling on Taking Zakat for the ʿĀqilah of a Madman who Killed Five]

Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success and aid: What I see as safer and more precautionary is that it is permissible for these people to be given from zakat as a loan which they borrow and then repay at the time of the qāt harvest. We only said that because:
1. The adherents of the madhhab have said that it is a condition in the debtor (al-ghārim) that he be poor, and these are not poor because of what they possess of abundant wealth.
2. Paying those amounts from zakat entails injustice toward the poor, given their great number in this time.
3. That Allah, Exalted is He, has judged, upon the tongue of His Messenger (may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), in a case not like this incident, that the blood-money is upon the ʿāqilah of the killer, to be distributed over them in three years, and the scholars have not mentioned that the ʿāqilah are among the debtors (al-ghārimīn) who have a share in zakat.
Rather, zakat, as in the hadith of Imām Zayd ibn ʿAlī (peace be upon him): “Charity is not lawful except for three: one who has grievous blood [liability] upon him, or one who has a painful debt, or one who has crushing poverty.” Therefore zakat is not to be spent on these [relatives], because they are not among the categories of zakat recipients.
Yes, the one on whom zakat may be spent is the man who mediates between fighting people in order to set their affairs aright, so he takes upon himself the blood-monies of the slain who fell in that fitnah, upon himself, as a means of rectification. Such a person is helped from zakat with what he has assumed of blood-monies, and he is given an amount by which he is freed from the responsibility of what he has undertaken, even if this person who has undertaken it is wealthy in himself, for it is not considered proper that the penalty be upon him from his own wealth. This is the madhhab of al-Mu’ayyad bi-llāh (peace be upon him), as in the Sharḥ, and al-Amīr al-Ḥusayn said: and this is the correct [view].
That being so, we only said that it is permissible to give such people from zakat as a loan out of consideration from us for settling the fitnah and extinguishing its flame, for the people of those lands in which the incident occurred do not adhere to the rulings of the Sharīʿah, especially in matters like what came in the question. Therefore we saw that they should borrow from it and then repay it, and we placed them, with regard to zakat in a state of necessity, in the position of Banū Hāshim, namely the permissibility of taking [zakat] by way of borrowing with the intention of repayment.
And the evidence for what we have said, along with the foregoing analogy, is His, the Exalted’s, saying: “except for that to which you are compelled” [al-Anʿām:119], and: “But whoever is forced by severe hunger with no inclination to sin” [al-Mā’idah:3].
And among the transmitted legal maxims: “In cases of necessity, the prohibited things become permissible,” and the necessity is removed by what we have mentioned; and His, the Exalted’s, saying: “He has not placed upon you in the religion any hardship” [al-Ḥajj:78],: “Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship” [al-Baqarah:185].
And in what we have said, along with what has preceded, there is also consideration for the side of the poor, and consideration for the side of settling the fitnah. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah bless Muḥammad and his family and grant them peace.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2