Is Zakat Due from a Woman on Her Mahr Debt?

Question

Although mahr does not prevent zakat, will zakat on this mahr be due from the wife or not? Zakat on a debt is due from the one who gave the debt; will this rule apply here in this case or not, when the husband has declared the mahr debt a debt that absorbs the nisab? The reason for the confusion in these questions is that in our region the mahr debt is not treated as preventing zakat, and therefore people do not consider zakat on the mahr to be due from the wife before she receives it.

Answer

Whether or not this debt prevents [zakat] for the husband, in any case its zakat is not due from the wife. Ownership (milk) is necessary for zakat to be obligatory, and the wife’s ownership of the mahr debt has not yet even been established. When it is received and her ownership of it is established, and a full year passes over it, then zakat will become due from the wife.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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