An agent paying his principal's zakat from his own money and reclaiming it

A question about an agent paying his principal's zakat from his own money and then reclaiming it, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that zakat is a financial act of worship in which agency is permitted and which may be paid from the agent's own money without disagreement, after which he reclaims it from the principal, on condition of the agent's intention at the time of payment. ¹

The questioner asked: may an agent pay his principal's zakat, with the principal's permission, out of his own money, and afterwards reclaim from the principal what he paid? ¹

The Department answered that zakat is one of the pillars of Islam and a purely financial act of worship, so agency is permitted in it, because its purpose is the payment of property, which is achieved whether the person does it himself or appoints another; it quoted al-Bujayrimi in Tuhfat al-Habib ala Sharh al-Khatib (3/459) that acts of worship are of three kinds: purely bodily, in which agency is barred except for the two units of prayer after circumambulation as part of the rites; purely financial, in which agency is permitted without restriction; and mixed, such as hajj, in which it is permitted on condition that it is on behalf of a deceased or incapacitated person. ¹ It quoted al-Nawawi in al-Majmu' (6/165) that a zakat payer who may distribute his zakat himself may appoint an agent to do so, either to hand it to the ruler and the collector or to distribute it to the eligible categories, both being permitted without disagreement; that zakat is due in the kind of property concerned and may be paid from the principal's property or from the agent's, al-Nawawi explaining that agency is allowed in it despite its being worship because it resembles the settling of debts and need may call for it when the property is absent, and that his school's scholars say it makes no difference whether the principal appointed him to pay from the principal's money or from the agent's own, both being permitted without disagreement. ¹ It said that if the agent pays from his own money, his intention at the time of payment is required for it to count, and the principal's intention does not suffice, as Ibn Hajar al-Haytami says in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj (3/348) that the agent's intention is required when the obligation is discharged with his money, as when the principal says 'pay my zakat from your money', so that his act is directed to the principal, as in hajj performed on another's behalf. ¹ It concluded that a zakat payer may appoint another to pay his zakat, that the agent may pay it from his own money and then reclaim what he paid from the payer, and that in this case the agent's intention at the time of payment is a condition. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4520, dated 25 October 2026, in the category of who owes zakat and on what it is due, as a research fatwa issued by the Iftaa Committee. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.