What is the best recipient of zakat?

Question

What is the best recipient (masraf) of zakat money? It is said that in present times it is better to spend it on religious education and its propagation. To what extent is this correct?

Answer

The best recipients of zakat are one’s own devout relatives, provided they are entitled to zakat. If, along with this, they are occupied with religion, then both kinship and religious education can be taken into account in this. Giving to those occupied with [religious] education is in any case more virtuous (afdal) than giving to the sinful and the dissolute (fussaq wa fujjar)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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