for the previous year until the next lunar year arrives and then pay both years together, or whether you should pay early, the decisive ruling is that you must hasten to pay the zakah for the past year at once. This is not, as you put it, an advance payment; rather, it is the disbursement of zakah that has already been established and become obligatory for a year that has elapsed. True pre-payment refers to giving zakah before its time has fallen due. Accordingly, as soon as you reach your homeland and are able, you must pay the zakah for the previous year immediately. It is not permissible to delay it except for a legitimate sharʿī excuse, for delaying it constitutes negligence in fulfilling the obligation and exposes you to events that might prevent its payment. You must therefore hurry to discharge it, and if—as we have said—you appoint and authorize someone you trust to pay it on your behalf during your absence, someone you are sure will deliver it to its lawful recipients, that would be better and more certain to clear you of liability.

In any case, you are required to give due attention to the zakah on your wealth, to pay it promptly when it becomes due, and not to treat the matter lightly. Allah knows best.

***

No share of zakah for one who is wealthy or for an able-bodied earner

Question: I am a businessman, and every year in the blessed month of Ramadan I pay zakah on the money I possess. I have workers employed by me on a monthly salary. Is it permissible for me to give them the zakah I pay each year, or must I hand it over to the government’s zakah collectors, who in turn distribute it in its proper channels? These workers, as far as I can tell, are religiously committed and in need of zakah. May I give it to them or not? Moreover, if I were to send the money by cheque through a bank in their country to their families, would that be valid, or must the zakah be paid out in cash?