The agent for paying zakat keeping the zakat for himself

Question

A certain person named Hamid, who is an owner of the nisab (sahib al-nisab), set aside as zakat on the wealth he owns — for a past year, or in advance for a coming year — a sum of several hundred or several thousand [rupees], and handed it over to a certain Rashid, a pauper who does not own the nisab, saying: “This entire sum that I am entrusting to you is under the head of zakat; no part of this sum must by any means reach the ownership of anyone who owns the nisab.

Answer

(1) The zakat has indeed been discharged, but this act is makruh according to the jurists. (2) This disapproval (karaha) is taken from a hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: the story of Hazrat Sulayk al-Ghatafani ﵁ is mentioned in the books of the Sihah (the authentic hadith collections), and it is the source of this disapproval.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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