Paying zakat with banknotes

Question

(1) Will zakat be paid if rupees from the zakat account are deposited into the madrasa’s fund for the poor, from which the expenses of poor students are met, or will it be necessary to resort to a hila (legal device)? What is the procedure for this at your madrasa? (2) It is written in “Imdad al-Fatawa” that zakat, fidya, fitra etc. are not paid by giving banknotes, because it is a hawala (transfer of debt), since the banknote is not the rupee itself but a document (sanad)

Answer

(1) The banknotes that come to our madrasa as zakat are not given to the students as they are: either they are changed and given in small change in the form of a cash stipend, or cloth is bought, or shoes are bought, or grain is bought and bread baked from it, or books are bought and given. By this, zakat is undoubtedly paid. (2)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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