recipients of zakaat

Q: Can zakaat, lillah, sadaqah and interest money be given to organisations involved in aid and relief work in places like Burma and Syria? Would one’s obligation or intention in respect of the above be discharged and what condition should be stipulated when effecting such payments?

Q: A woman who is a widow with no children has more than the nisaab amount, which is invested but the income from it is less than her monthly expenses. Can this woman be assisted with zakaat to cover her monthly shortfall in her expenses.

Q: My husband is in heavy debts. I have a good amount of gold given to me in my marriage as a gift by my parents, in-laws and relatives. The zakat on gold amounts to thousands of rupees. I am a housewife so whatever my husband gives me for my personal expenses is the only income I have. First year of my marriage I sold a few items of my gold and paid off the zakat to nearest relatives who were in need. Now I heard about this following hadith: Al-Bukhaari (1462) and Muslim (1000) from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allaah be pleased with him), that when the Nabi (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) commanded the women to give in charity, Zaynab the wife of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood came to him and said: “O Prophet of Allaah, today you told us to give in charity. I have some jewellery and I want to give it in charity, but Ibn Mas’ood claims that he and his child are more deserving of my charity.” The Nabi (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said: “Ibn Mas’ood has spoken the truth. Your husband and child are more deserving of your charity.” So I ask you if you could clear my doubts regarding it accordingly. Can I give the amount my husband gave to me for my peesonal expenses as zakat back to my husband so he could pay off his debts? 

Q: If children, grandchildren are adults who live on their own and do not possess the Zakaah Nisaab, can Zakaah be given to them if the parents are not wealthy but possess the Zakaah nisaab?

Q:

1. Zaid bought a house on mortgage, he owes the bank a lot of money, about 70 thousand pounds, he has to pay at least 5 thousand pounds to the bank every year. Zaid has 5 thousand pounds savings in his account (kept the money for daily family usage) does he have to pay zakat on this amount (5 thousand pounds) at the end of the year because his debt is more than his savings?

2. Is there a difference of opinion amongst scholars regarding the above situation if zakat is fardh or not?

3. Will it be permissible for Zaid to take zakat money to pay of his mortgage to the bank? 

Q:

1. Can my wife use her zakat money to send my parents or other relatives to hajj?

2. Can she save her zakat money for two or three years so that it reaches certain amount and could be used for bigger causes?

3. What are the ways in which the zaakat money can be used, like school or university education of a Muslim student?

4. Can it be used to support parents or in laws?

Q: Whilst running my business I incurred huge debts in the past few years, and for this reason I had to close my business and was forced to leave my home country for safty reasons. Now for almost two years I'm in a foreign land with my family. Both my wife and I are working. Some of the people who I owe are in the hope that I will one day pay them Inshallah. Now that I'm working and thus the salary what we both receive does not suffice our monthly expenses which includes house rent, school fees, and other day to day expenses. Expenses are more than double the amount we receive as salary. My wife has almost 250g of gold jewellery which was left in my home country which is still belongs to her. And over here where we stay now, we do not own anything unnecessary. Now Mufti saheb my question is

(a) In this scenario am I allowed to collect zakaat funds to overcome my monthly expenses?

(b) I'm I allowed to collect zakaat funds to clear my past business debt?

Q: My country has a lot of fake miskeen, they doing this as a job. They have TV, satellites, even mobile phones. If they beg from me should I give them zakaat?