Aslamoálaikum wa rakhmatullah, Dear representative of Darul Uloom Deoband, I am working in the Netherlands and would like to request you to kindly guide me for following question. I along with some of family members would like to start a student welfare fund from Zakat money. Where we are planning to collect our zakat money in a separate account and give to different deserving students (orphans etc.) for higher studies. But this will be a soft loan without any interest, service charges or time limitations. When candidate will start job, he has to return with 10 % of his salary. This returning money will be used for further students. In this case once money is gone from our pocket as for zakat, it will never come back but will be in circle for deserving students. Please let me know the Islamic value of above mentioned process. Is it allowed to do like this or not? Thank you very much in advance for your kind guidance. Best Regards, Jahangir — Muhammad Jahangir, PhD Leiden University, Institute of Biology Division of Pharmacognosy / Section Metabolomics Gorlaeus Lab., Einsteinweg 55 P.O: Box 9502, 2300 RA, Leiden The Netherlands
Answer:
(Fatwa: 140/109/H=1432)
It is not lawful, because it does not fulfil the requirement of tamlik (transfer of ownership) and it is one of the important conditions of paying zakah.
Allah (Subhana Wa Ta’ala) knows Best
Darul Ifta,
Darul Uloom Deoband