Wants to pay Zakah to his cousin to help him with his wedding expenses
10-3-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalam-o-alakam,
I have question related to zakah,i have paternal aunty who is widow,she has her own house ALHAMDOLILLAH,her elder sone is now earning 30000 rupees monthly and he is getting married soon.I want to inquire can i give them zakat money as though he is earning 30000 rs./monthly yet he hasnt any savings for wedding because all his salary is utulised in monthly expenses and if he have some savings its not enough for modest marriage ceremony.He and his family wants to purchase 36 gram gold jewelry for bride and few clothes,they will only give valima feast,i mean they are skipping HENNA functin,in short they are trying their best to minimise expenses but still they cant manage it.So kindly guide me if i can give zakah money to help them as i vent enough resources to help them.
wasalam
numan
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
We have already issued Fataawa 88368 and 87169 clarifying the categories of people who are eligible for Zakah. Therefore, if your aunt is amongst those categories and she is in need of her son to spend on her, then it becomes permissible for you to pay the Zakah on your money to her. Rather, paying the Zakah to her is better than paying it to a stranger because you get double reward in giving Zakah to a relative; the reward of Zakah and the reward of keeping ties with him/her.
It is also permissible to pay your Zakah to your cousin if he is completely or partly unable to meet the expenses of his wedding. However, if he is only partly unable to meet the expenses of his wedding, then you should only give him what will be enough for him to meet his needs without any extravagance.
Allaah Knows best.