Zakat to One’s Father and Stepmother

Question

A certain man is an owner of the nisab; he lives separately from his parents. His father is old and frail and has no livelihood at all. The father has six or seven children from his other wife, of whom only one is adult, and he too is uneducated and unemployed, with no source of income. In such a situation, may the son take (?) zakat for the parents, that is, for his father and his stepmother, who is not of the sayyids (descendants of the Prophet ﷺ), although the father is a sayyid?

Answer

Giving zakat to the father is not proper under any circumstances. Giving zakat to the stepmother, when she is a recipient of zakat — that is, she is not an owner of the nisab and not a sayyid — is proper. Giving non-obligatory charity to both is permissible.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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