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Is zakah Al-Fitr accepted from a bank employee?

Question

Is it permissible to receive zakah Al-Fitr from someone who works in a bank or from money that comes from banks?

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

Working in interest-based banks is prohibited, and so is taking loans from it in return for an interest. Whoever is involved in such a deal must repent and ask Allaah for forgiveness. Whoever knows a person who is involved in such a deal must advise him to stay away from this.

Zakah Al-Fitr must be taken from a lawful source of money. Paying zakah from ill-gotten money is impermissible and does not count as a valid fulfillment of the obligation.

However, zakah may be taken from the person in question if he has mixed money that combines both lawful and unlawful sources. If the amount itself that is given as zakah is purely ill-gotten, then it should not be accepted. In his commentary, Qalyoobi  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said, “It is not prohibited to consume, deal with, and accept charities and gifts that come from the person whose money is mostly ill-gotten, unless the thing itself that is received from such a person is known to be ill-gotten; then one avoids it.

However, a needy person is allowed to accept ill-gotten charities if he knows that such charities are given by the owner in order to discard such ill-gotten money, and not as zakah or charity.

Allaah Knows best.

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