Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

The husband does not have to pay zakaah on the jewellery on

his wife’s behalf, because the zakaah is only obligatory on the possessor of

the wealth, and the possessor in this case is your wife, because she is the

owner of the jewellery. So she has to pay zakaah on it, either from the

jewellery itself or from its monetary value. If her husband or someone else

pays zakaah on her behalf with her permission, that is o.k., and he will be

rewarded for this voluntary action.

If the wife wants to give the zakaah on her jewellery or

anything else to her husband who is in debt and cannot pay it off or who is

poor, there is nothing wrong with that, because it comes under the general

meaning of the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

“As-Sadaqaat (here it

means Zakaah) are only for the Fuqaraa’ (poor), and Al-Masaakeen (the

poor)…” [al-Tawbah 9:60]

Indeed there is the hope that she will have a multiple

reward, because of the hadeeth narrated by al-Bukhaari (1466) and Muslim

(1000) from Zaynab, the wife of ‘Abd-Allaah, who said: “The Messenger of

Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Give in

charity, O women, even if it is from your jewellery.’ I went back to

‘Abd-Allaah and said, ‘You are a man who has little, and the Messenger of

Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has commanded us to

give in charity. Go and ask him if that is acceptable, otherwise I will give

my charity to someone else.’ ‘Abd-Allaah said to me, ‘No, you go and ask

him.’ So I went, and there I saw a woman from among the Ansaar at the door

of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him),

wanting to ask the same question. We felt too shy to speak to the Messenger

of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Bilaal came out

to us and we said to him, ‘Go to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and

blessings of Allaah be upon him) and tell him that there are two women at

the door asking whether it is acceptable for them to give charity (zakaah)

to their husbands and the orphans who are in their care, but do not tell him

who we are.’ Bilaal went in to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and

blessings of Allaah be upon him) and asked him, and the Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked, ‘Who are they?’ He

said, ‘A woman from among the Ansaar and Zaynab.’ The Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked, ‘Which Zaynab?’ He

said, ‘The wife of ‘Abd-Allaah.’ The Messenger of Allaah (peace and

blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to him, ‘They will have two

rewards, the reward of (upholding ties of) kinship and the reward of giving

charity.’” Ibn Hajar (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “From this

hadeeth it may be understood that it is permissible for a woman to give

zakaah to her husband. This is the view of al-Shaafa’i, al-Thawri, the two

companions of Abu Haneefah, one of the two reports narrated from Maalik and

from Ahmad.”