Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
I have a certain amount of money and the month came in which I usually pay zakat. However, I would like to wait for some things and hold on to my money for three or six months so that I can pay off a permissible loan, so should I calculate the amount of zakat on all of my money, including the amount that I will use to pay off the loan?
If the money has reached the nisab [s. miminum wealth upon which zakat must be paid] and a lunar year has passed upon it, the owner must pay zakat and it is not permissible for him to delay it to pay off a debt or any other kind of need, because the right of the poor is connected with the amount of zakat on that money, so they take precedence before anyone else. Whoever must pay zakat and also has a debt to pay off, he does not subtract the amount of the loan from his money, rather he pays the zakat on the entire amount on which it is obligatory.