[surefireinvest]

I donated money to the National Zakat Foundation. I later realised however that funds will also be used to build a womens refuge. Although this is a noble aim, from my (limited) understanding of the Hanafi fiqh, for Zakat to be fulfilled, it must be a transfer of tangible Assets to the person in need, hence building a womens refuge won't deem my Zakat obligation fulfilled. Can you comment?

wa alaykum salaam

jazak allahu khair for your contribution

one request, please ask in a manner that doesnt make it appear that people cannot give money to the charity, as it may put people off donating even though this question needs to be put before someone knowledgeable first. so "is a womens refuge a zakatable project" for example may be more appropriate unless you already consulted with someone. like if i say "ummah welfare trust doesnt distribute zakat in a way that is eligible in the shariah" its an accusation and as im a layman with limited knowledge its better to ask "is this zakatable for x, y ,z reasons". just an advice as we dont want to be accountable for anything on the yawmil quiyama.

regarding your question, alhamdulillah im very happy you contributed your zakat money to this project. let me assure you that 100% if your donation will go on helping needy muslims in the UK and inshAllah you will acquire MORE reward than if you were to give abroad. believe me there are muslim women on the streets prostituting themselves to feed their families, there are families sleeping rough etc, 3million muslims here, surely we should be able to take care of this.

zakat is payable into 8 different categories. however, i think its better that we get a person of knowledge to answer your question in full with details, quotations from qur'an, hadeeth and hanafi scholars inshAllah and will that be sufficient?

or do you mean you paid zakatul fitr? Alhamdulillah national zakat foundation also accepts zakatul fitr but it must be specified as zakatul fitr in order to be distributed in compliance with specific criteria that only applies to zakatul fitr.

inshAllah Ill try to get your question answered and its very important that we ensure our money is given in accordance with the shariah although im very certain that they know whatthey are doing and woudlnt collect money for zakat unless they knew it was permissable to use it in this manner (in this case to house the homeless). please note that money is also distributed to people for food and other necessities and inshAllah soon i will be posting up some of the fruits of peoples donations as they are already helping quite a few homeless muslims alhamdulillah including a man and his 8 year old daughter who were sleeping rough and now are housed with food alhamdulillah and are being taken care. its very heart warming to see the difference you are making so i will try to post up more info inshallah.

i will try to get tawfique choudry to answer this question personally inshallah to avoid future confusion, he's very knowledgable mashallah and i dont think he would have approved the set up of a zakat foundation that wasnt zakatable and he was the one who recommended me to learn hanafi fiqh so im sure he can quote you hanafi references inshallah in case their is any minor differences in this area between madhahib.

in the mean time, if a scholar who is present here could also give a second oppinion that would be great inshallah