“Hear and obey, even if he strikes your back and seizes your wealth.”

If the ruler happens to take less than what is due, the owner of the property must pay the remaining balance and may not claim, “He has already taken it from me, so my liability is cleared.” Thus, if your zakah amounts to one thousand and the collector takes only eight hundred, you must still pay the outstanding two hundred.

Among the benefits derived from this ḥadith is that zakah may be disbursed to a single category out of the eight eligible categories: the poor (fuqarāʾ), the needy (masākin), those employed to collect it, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, freeing captives, debtors, in the cause of Allah, and the wayfarer. If the payer gives the entire sum to just one of these categories, it is valid; indeed, even giving all of it to a single individual within any one category is sufficient. For example, if someone owes one hundred thousand riyals in debt and your zakah equals that same amount, paying off his entire debt fulfills your obligation.

Accordingly, the meaning of Allah’s statement, “Charitable offerings are only for the poor …” (Q 9:60), is simply to identify the channels of distribution. It does not require you to divide the zakah among all eight categories, nor even among three persons in each category. Giving the whole amount to one person in one category is enough, as this ḥadith makes clear.

It is also understood that zakah is to be spent in its locality—that is, in the place where the wealth is found. As mentioned earlier, it is not permissible to transfer zakah outside the region in which the wealth is located, except