Giving someone zakat in excess of the nisab

Question

May a person deserving zakat be given at one time, out of zakat and the fidya (compensation) for fasts and prayers, a sum of seventeen or eighteen thousand, or a house of the same value, or not?

Answer

Giving zakat to someone in such an amount that he becomes an owner of the nisab is makruh (so it is in al-Durr al-Mukhtar). Hence, if this person owes a debt of seventeen or eighteen thousand, or owes so much debt that, if this sum is given to him under the head of zakat and he pays off his debt with it, the amount of the nisab will not remain with him, then such giving will…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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