from it, is zakah due on it, since releasing him is like taking possession of it, or is no zakah due?
Answer: There is some detail to this. If zakah was due on this debt, releasing it does not waive the zakah; but if zakah was not due, then releasing it waives it. This is the governing criterion. Thus, if he releases a poor person from a debt, or something similar, no zakah is due. As for the view that zakah is due in all cases once he releases him from it, on the grounds that release is like taking possession—and that once a debt is collected, whether from a wealthy person or a poor one, zakah is due on it—this view is weak.
His words, “A gift of every tangible item that may be sold is permissible,” teach us—may Allah grant us and him success—that a gift applies only to tangible assets; as for a debt, it is called a release.
His words, “that may be sold,” mean: whose sale is valid. This excludes that whose sale is invalid.
The apparent meaning of his words is that anything whose sale is invalid, even because it is unknown or because it cannot be delivered, cannot validly be given as a gift. The correct view is that whatever cannot validly be sold due to its being unknown or involving excessive uncertainty may nevertheless validly be given as a gift. For example, if a person’s slave runs away and he says to his companion, “I have given you my runaway slave as a gift,” and he accepts, the correct view is that this is permissible. If the recipient finds him, he gains; and if he does not find him, he loses nothing. This differs from a sale. Likewise, according to the preponderant view, an unknown item may validly be given as a gift, because the recipient either loses nothing or gains; thus, it is not among the forms of gambling that Allah—Exalted is He—has prohibited in His Book.
If someone gives a dedicated endowment as a gift, the gift is invalid, because an endowment cannot validly be sold. If he gives a pledged item as a gift, it is invalid, because a pledged item cannot validly be sold. If he gives a leased item as a gift, the gift is valid, because a leased item may validly be sold, but