Can a debtor repay a portion of his loan to his creditor and give the balance of the loan as Zakaat without having any prior arrangements of the same with his creditor? 

Q. Mufti Saheb, Client A borrowed from Client B an X amount of money, now Client A only wants to pay back a portion of the money borrowed and does not want to pay off the loan in full. Client A says that the balance he owes, he will give it out in Zakaat. There was no such arrangements made. What is the Islamic ruling? 

A. If A took a loan from B with an agreement of A to pay the full amount of the loan back to B, then A is liable to pay B the full amount of the loan.

In the enquired situation, as there were no arrangements of payment of Zakaat related to A and B and the loan, A is still liable to pay B the full amount of the loan.

Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ismaeel Bassa

themufti.com