Zakaat

Helping a poor Muslim with zakaat

Q: Can I zakaat give to a person who needs help for his business. He is poor but he can fullfil his daily food and clothing needs. He has a home also in the village but he can not do business due to money, so that his financial condition can improve. If we can help him, Insha Allah his condition will get better. Please guide me.

Giving one's zakaat to one's brother

Q: My question has two part which are as follows:

1. Can we give our zakaat money to our brother who is not living with me nor with family, he is living alone and by his own living cost?

2. Our father and mother passed away last year. We seven brothers have contributed money for (Mom/Dad) their Tadfeen and Takfeen and I have paid 600 USD on behalf of my brother (lending) who is needy, so this year my zakaat money is 470 USD and can I count and cut this zakaat money from the 600 USD which I have paid on his behalf?

Zakaat on inheritance which one received after several years

Q: We inherited some jewellery from our parents, which was in the locker and after dad's death, we lost the access to the locker. Until recently we managed and weighed all jewellery and distributed among ourselves (we are four brothers and a sister) as per shariah. As no zakaat was paid on them since the father died, immediately two weeks after the distribution, my elder brother died. He didn't pay any zakaat on them. He had one wife, one son, three daughters. Are they supposed to pay zakaat for that unpaid 7 years period , and how shall they distribute among themselves?

Feeding the poor

Q: I have recently adopted a practice of distributing food among people after jumma prayers out side mosque. My question is that I am not sure whether the people who take the food are really poor people or not? So in this stance please advise whether my this practice is beneficial for me or not?

Zakaat on extra clothes and books

Q:

1. I want to ask that if Zakaat is compulsory on the clothes which are rarely used i.e This time almost everyone has wardrobes filled with clothes from which some are used and others are rarely in use. Is zakaat fradh on these clothes or not?

2. Same way I am used to buying different books like Islamic books, Sciencebooks and others and have a huge amount of books at my home. Is Zakaat fardh on these books?