________________________________________________________________________ | w w w |\ | || || | || |\ | o_,_7 _|| . _o_7 _|| 4_|_|| o_w_, |\ | ( : / (_) / ( . |\ | |\ | || || | || |T | | || | |\ | . _, _8 |_D_|| . _,_,_,_D_|| 4_|| q ]_o_7_o _|_c 4_|_|| _|,_p q |\ | (_): / (_): . : / (_S (_S / |\ | |\ | In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful |\ | Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\ |_______________________________________________________________________|\ Salamun Alaykum, The following question was kindly answered by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi. Regards, Abbas Jaffer Moderator -'Aalim Network ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTION: "Zakat should be given to the needy Shia locally, if possible, otherwise anywhere." I am a Sunni (Shafi). I understood from your sentence above that a Shi'i can't give zakat to a Sunni. Please give information about that. Allah Hafiz. ANSWER: According to the Shi'a Ja'fari madhhab, zakat is to be given primarily to those who deserve it from among the Shi'a Muslims. However, zakat may be given to the Sunnis (or for that matter even to non-Muslims) if such an help will improve their closeness to the religion of Islam. Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi