By our statement, “or because he is supporting his children,” we mean children from another wife. For if his children are hers and their father is poor, she is obliged to support them, because they are her children. But if he has children from another wife and is poor, then the wife may give him her zakah.

This may perhaps be supported by the hadith of Zaynab, the wife of Abdullah ibn Masud, when the Prophet ﷺ urged people to give charity. Ibn Masud said to his wife, “Give it to me and to my children; we are more entitled to your charity.”

She replied, “No—not until I ask the Prophet ﷺ.” So she asked the Prophet ﷺ, and he said, “Abdullah is right. Your husband and your child are more entitled to those upon whom you give charity.” (1)

It may therefore be said that his words, “those upon whom you give charity,” include both obligatory and voluntary charity.

In any case, if the hadith provides evidence, then that is all the better. But if it is said that it applies specifically to voluntary charity, then we say, in establishing the permissibility of giving zakah to one’s husband: the husband is poor, and thus possesses the qualifying characteristic by which he is entitled to zakah. So where is the evidence prohibiting it? For when the cause exists, the ruling is established unless there is evidence to the contrary. There is no evidence, neither in the Quran nor in the sunnah, that a woman may not give her zakah to her husband.

This is a principle: “The basic rule is that whoever falls under a qualifying category is entitled to it, and zakah given to him is valid, unless there is evidence to the contrary.” We know of no impediment to this except in the case of one who, by giving it to her, would thereby relieve himself of an obligation incumbent upon him.