Zakat al-Fitr Guidance

Occasion: Transcript of a Fajr khatira delivered on March 11, 2026 Source: Transcript of a recorded khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abou Seif, watch the original video on YouTube

A lot of questions are coming to us about Zakat al-Fitr. The foundation is the hadith in which the Companion said that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made it upon us as a mandatory obligation. That means we have no choice whether to give it or not. Some scholars said it is a sunnah, and some said it is not just a sunnah, but we go with the majority, who hold it obligatory.

How much?

Because the Prophet ﷺ pointed to different types of food, each with a different price, our understanding is that the amount depends on the income of each one of us. Someone whose income is modest is completely different from someone whose income is much higher. Your Zakat al-Fitr is calculated per person in your home. As long as you are the householder, you pay on behalf of yourself and on behalf of everybody under your household.

Someone who has more income than I do will not pay the same as I do; it will be more. It depends on your expenses. This is the bottom line of the issue. For that reason we do not fix one number for everyone; you will not find it that way. It is not that the doctors, the lawyers, the teachers, the engineers and the business people all come and leave paying the same fixed figure. The needy have a right, and they need what Allah assigned for them in my money. And as much as we increase the amount, Allah increases the baraka in our lives.

Here or overseas?

Somebody asks: do we need to give it here? Can we give it overseas? For sure we can. But I hear from a brother who has been taking care of this issue for a few years that people around him in his circle come to ask what to do about it this year. So we encourage people: if you know many people in your country who need your zakat and you give it there, do not miss the extra baraka of also adding something, even a small amount, to the zakat box here, to cover the needy people in our own area.

At the end of the day, any lack in the community is a responsibility of the whole community. Let me say it again: any lack in the community is a responsibility over the whole community. Is that clear? When I need something, it is your responsibility; when you need something, it is mine too. We are talking about the unity of the Muslim community here.

Give it as soon as you can

The third thing: give it as soon as you can, because it is better for you. The people are already waiting for it. Everybody is making his calculation, expecting to receive a certain amount to cover this and that.

Trust in Allah

One of the most important things in our Islam is our trust in Allah, glory be to Him, and nowhere else. You trust in Allah that much, and because of that you give even if you have nothing. Sometimes, when I make a fundraising appeal, somebody comes to me and says: Sheikh, please forgive me about the amount, but this is all I have. He opens his hand and you find a few crumpled dollars, all he has. He brings it and puts it in your hand and says, forgive my shortcoming. Why did this person come with that? He could have bought something with it, but his trust is in Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High.

And sometimes we have our own duties tomorrow or after tomorrow, and I know I am going to pay them, yet when somebody calls me and says I need, I take from my pocket and give. That is how much we trust in Allah, the Most High. This is the basis on which Allah will give us baraka; otherwise we lose our dignity.

Before Allah

Do not forget that we will stand before Allah, and He will ask us. Imagine He asks me about the wealth He already gave me: what did you do with it? Will you say, I already paid my zakat? What about the rest of the money I gave you? What did you do for the needy people around you? Why did I choose you to be a rich person and not give the same to the rest of the people, to test them by you and to test you by them?

I do not want to take long. This is the issue of Zakat al-Fitr. If you have any other questions, we are here to answer.