A helper paying zakat without the owner’s permission

Question

I, my father and my three brothers — all five of us — trade together. All the goods and all the accounts are kept with me. We do not divide profit and loss among ourselves; rather, whatever comes in we put back into the trade. If someone needs money, we give him money according to his need, and all the remaining goods we put into the trade. When the zakat nisab is reached, my father and the other three brothers are not willing to pay zakat according to the nisab.

Answer

If the original capital belongs to your father and the trade was started with it, then the owner of all the wealth is your father, and the zakat is upon him. You four brothers are not his partners in ownership; rather, you are your father’s helpers, and zakat on this wealth is not wajib upon the four of you.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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