Question:
I had given a loan to one of my friends. Unexpectedly, he passed away. The loan I gave him was not known to his wife or children. He had not informed them that he had borrowed money from me. I know this because he himself told me that no one in his house knew about this loan. He told me: ‘You have given the loan only to me. I have not told my wife or my children about it.’ Later he suddenly passed away. Later he watched our NTF lecture about Zakat. In that lecture, it was explained that if someone has given a loan and it becomes impossible to recover it, that amount may be deducted from the Zakat one has to give. The person asking the question says: ‘I had given him a loan of 9 lakh rupees. When he died, while standing near his burial place, I prayed to Allahﷻ : “O Allahﷻ , I forgive the loan I gave him. Do not punish him in the Hereafter because of this debt.”’ Since the deceased had not informed his wife or children about the debt, he says he cannot go and claim the money from them. Therefore, he forgave the debt as Zakat. Is it permissible?
Answer:
In the above case, he cannot do that. Why? Because when he forgave the debt, it became equivalent to giving a gift.
For example:
If I borrow 1 lakh rupees from someone, and later the lender tells me: “I cancel the debt. You do not have to return it.” That means he has effectively given that amount to me as a gift.
So, forgiving a debt is essentially the same as giving charity or a gift. In this case, when the man prayed at the time of the borrower’s death and said: “O Allahﷻ , I forgive this debt,” that means he converted the loan into a gift.
Once something is given as a gift, it cannot be taken back.
If he now wants to treat it as Zakat, he will first have to take back the money, and only then count it as Zakat. But since he already forgave it, that is no longer possible.
Islam strictly warns against taking back a gift. In Sahih al-Bukhari (Hadith 2589), the Prophetﷺ ﷺ said:
“The one who takes back his gift is like a dog that vomits and then eats its own vomit.” This shows how strongly Islam condemns taking back something that has been given. There is also an example involving Umar (RA).
Umar once gave a horse to someone to be used in the path of Allahﷻ . Later he saw that the person was not taking good care of the horse, so he thought of buying it back for a cheap price.
When he asked the Prophetﷺ ﷺ about this, the Prophetﷺ told him: “Do not buy it back, even if he sells it for one dirham.”
Because if someone buys back what he previously gave, the seller might reduce the price out of respect, which effectively becomes taking back the gift. Therefore, Islam discourages taking back anything that was given as charity or a gift.
So, in this case: When the man forgave the 9 lakh rupees, it became a gift to the deceased. He cannot now reverse that decision and count it as Zakat.
If someone else owes him money and is unable to repay it, he may deduct it from his Zakat. But this particular case cannot be treated that way, because he already forgave the debt.
