Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamalaikum
Please let me know if I can calculate my zakah and keep it aside to be disbursed at future date. If it is possible, will I get the hasanah same 70 times as we get in ramadan.

Pls advise, Jazakallah khair

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Answer:

Zakah in ramadan

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 1965 Narrated by Salman al-Farisi

Allah's Messenger (saws) said in a sermon which he (saws) delivered to them on the last day of Sha'ban, “A great month (Ramadan), a blessed month, a month containing a night which is better than a thousand months has approached you people. Allah has appointed the observance of fasting during it as an obligatory duty, and the passing of its night in prayer as a voluntary practice. If someone draws near to Allah during it with some good act, he will be like one who fulfils an obligatory duty in another month; and he who fulfils an obligatory duty in it will be like one who fulfils seventy obligatory duties in another month. It is the month of endurance and the reward of endurance is Paradise. It is the month of sharing with others, and a month in which the believer's provision is increased. If someone gives one who has been fasting something with which to break his fast it will provide forgiveness of his sins and save him from Hell, and he will have a reward equal to his without his reward being diminished in any respect." We remarked to Allah's Messenger (saws) that not all of us have the means to give one who had been fasting something with which to break his fast. He (saws) replied, "Allah gives this reward to him who gives one who has been fasting some milk mixed with water, or a date, or a drink of water with which to break his fast. Anyone who gives a full meal to one who has been fasting will be given a drink from my tank (Al-Hawd) by Allah and will not thirst till he enters Paradise. It is a month whose beginning is mercy, whose middle is forgiveness, and whose end is freedom from Hell. If anyone makes things easy for his slave during it, Allah will forgive him and free him from Hell."

Your Question: Please let me know if I can calculate my zakah and keep it aside to be disbursed at future date. If it is possible, will I get the hasanah same 70 times as we get in ramadan.
Although it is absolutely permissible in Shariah for one to determine any date as the year-end for their annual zakah determinations, it would obviously be best that one to determine and pay their zakah dues during the blessed month of Ramadan….thus entitling their rewards to be multiplied in excess of seventy times.

If one intends to fulfill their ‘zakah’ determination in the blessed month of Ramadan so that he may earn the full rewards, but for any reason whatsoever one is unable to pay his full zakah during the blessed month, or one simply does not have the full funds in cash to distribute them in Ramadan, or one does not find someone eligible to distribute their zakah in Ramadan, or one merely keeps a part of it aside to be distributed as the need arises during the year….there is absolutely no harm; and it is expected that their Lord will bestow upon them the same reward if they had distributed their full zakah in the blessed month of Ramadan.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan