Can I give my zakat to my relatives?

Why relatives come first

The scholars base this on a hadith the Prophet ﷺ gave when asked about giving charity to relatives. The reward is doubled: it fulfils the obligation of zakat and it strengthens the kinship bond.

"Charity given to the poor is charity, and charity given to a relative is two things: charity and maintaining ties."— Sunan al-Nasa'i 2582, from Salman ibn Amir

Ibn Baz draws the conclusion directly from this: if the relatives are poor, there is no harm in giving them zakat — rather, charity to them is better than charity to others, precisely because of this hadith. Al-Buhuti, in Kashshaf al-Qina', states it as a recommended act: it is mustahabb (recommended) to direct your zakat to relatives whose maintenance you are not obliged to provide.

Who you may give to

The general rule, as Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen both put it, is that any relative whose maintenance is not obligatory on you may receive your zakat if they meet one of the categories of eligibility. That includes:

• Brothers and sisters — including a sister who is married to a poor man; Ibn Uthaymeen was asked exactly this and said there is no harm in her brother giving her from his zakat.
• Paternal and maternal uncles and aunts — Ibn Baz names the uncle, aunt, maternal uncle and maternal aunt explicitly.
• Cousins and more distant kin — Ibn Baz includes the sons of the uncle, the son of the maternal uncle and the son of the maternal aunt, and "others like them."
• Any relative who is in debt — Ibn Baz mentions those who are gharimun (burdened with debt they cannot repay) as eligible alongside the poor.

The condition throughout is that the relative must actually be among those entitled to zakat — poor, needy, or in debt. Kinship alone does not make someone eligible.

Who you may not give to

Two groups are excluded, and the scholars are consistent on this.

Your parents and grandparents, however far up. Ibn Baz explains the reasoning: they are not among the people of zakat, because you are obliged to spend on them from your own wealth if they are poor. Giving them zakat would effectively discharge your own duty of maintenance out of the zakat fund.

Your children and grandchildren, however far down. The same reasoning applies. Ibn Baz puts it vividly: the children are a part of him and he is a part of his father and mother, so the obligation is to spend on them from the core of your wealth, not from zakat.

Ibn Uthaymeen states the underlying principle in a form that covers both:

"The rule in this is that any relative whose maintenance is obligatory on the zakat-payer, it is not permissible to give him zakat in a way that would lift that maintenance from him."— Ibn Uthaymeen, Fatawa Arkan al-Islam

When the debt is not maintenance

Here is a distinction that opens up cases people often miss. Even for a relative whose maintenance you owe, you may pay their debt from your zakat — provided the debt did not arise from a failure to provide maintenance.

Ibn Uthaymeen gives the example of a man whose son was in an accident and was made liable for a fine on the car he damaged, with no money to pay it. The father may pay that fine from his zakat, because the obligation arose from something unrelated to maintenance. The same applies to paying a debt owed by your father, your mother, your son or your daughter, so long as the debt's cause is not neglect of maintenance.

The logic is that you were never obliged to settle that debt in the first place, so paying it from zakat does not relieve you of anything you owed.

The case of the Prophet's family

One further restriction: if your relatives are from the family of the Prophet ﷺ (Ahl al-Bayt), zakat may not be given to them. IslamWeb notes that the Malikis and those who agreed with them held that they may be given zakat if poor, since their share of the fifth was withheld — but the position stated in the fatwa is that it is not permitted. If, however, a woman of the Prophet's family is married to a poor man who is not of Ahl al-Bayt, there is no objection to giving zakat to that husband on account of his poverty.

In practice

Work through it in this order:

1. Identify the relative's need — are they poor, needy, or in debt they cannot clear?
2. Ask whether their maintenance is on you — parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren: no zakat, but support them from your own money.
3. If maintenance is not on you — brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and beyond — give, and know that it carries a double reward.
4. If maintenance is on you but they carry a debt — you may pay that debt from your zakat, as long as the debt did not come from a failure to provide for them.
5. Check the family line — if they are of Ahl al-Bayt, zakat is not given to them.

Key takeaways

• Zakat to a poor relative is better than zakat to a stranger, because it is charity and maintaining ties at once.
• Parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren may not receive your zakat; you support them from your own wealth.
• Brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and other relatives may receive it, provided they are genuinely eligible.
• You may pay a relative's debt from your zakat even if their maintenance is on you, so long as the debt did not arise from neglect of maintenance.
• Relatives of the Prophet's family are not given zakat, though a poor non-Ahl al-Bayt husband married to one of them may be.

Further reading

• Ibn Baz, Majmu' Fatawa wa Maqalat
• Ibn Uthaymeen, Fatawa Arkan al-Islam
• Al-Buhuti, Kashshaf al-Qina'

And Allah knows best.