In our land the Israeli forces have surrounded Khan Younis and cut off the roads, and the wives have no news of their husbands. How should they pay zakaat al-fitr?

 *السَّـــــــلاَمُ عَلَيــْــكُم وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكـَـاتُه*

*بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيْم*

          *ZAKAAT-AL-FITR*

*Question*

*In our land the Israeli forces have surrounded Khan Younis and cut off the roads, and the wives have no news of their husbands. How should they pay zakaat al-fitr?.*

*Answer*

*Praise be to Allah.*

Zakaat al-fitr is obligatory upon the head of the household, who is the one who is in charge of the money. He has to pay zakaah on behalf of himself and of his dependents – wives, children and others. 

If he is unable to pay this zakaah, then Allaah will excuse him, and he has to make it up after Allaah makes things easy for him and he returns to his family. 

With regard to the wives, if they are able to pay zakaat al-fitr on behalf of themselves, then they must hasten to do so. If they are unable to do that then they do not have to do anything, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 

“So keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him as much as you can”

[al-Taghaabun 64:16]

“Allaah burdens not a person beyond his scope”

[al-Baqarah 2:286] 

If a woman pays zakaat al-fitr on behalf of herself and her children, then she will be rewarded; if she can only afford to pay on behalf of herself, then that is all she has to do. 

If a woman is able to speak to her husband by phone and receive permission from him to give zakaat al-fitr, and there is enough food in the house to give this zakaah on behalf of her husband and his dependents, then she should give zakaat al-fitr on their behalf, after taking permission from her husband. 

We ask Allaah to relieve this distress and to bring these husbands back safe and sound, and to grant victory to Islam and the Muslims and defeat the kaafir Jews. 

May Allaah send blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad.