Giving zakat to a needy divorced wife for her medical treatment

A question about a zakat payer giving his zakat to his divorced wife so that she can have a necessary operation, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that a revocably divorced woman is still in the position of a wife and may not be given from the share of the poor and needy, while a finally divorced woman has become a stranger to him and he may pay her from his zakat whenever she qualifies for it. ¹

The questioner asked: may a zakat payer give his zakat to his divorced wife so that she can undergo a necessary surgical operation, since she cannot afford the cost of treatment? ¹

Dar al-Ifta began by explaining that Islam made zakat a duty on anyone who owns the minimum amount beyond his needs for a full year, in order to meet the needs of the eight categories named in al-Tawba 9:60, and that placing the poor and needy first in the verse confirms their priority and that the basic aim is to provide for their food, drink, housing, education and medical treatment, in keeping with the purpose of zakat, meeting the needs of Muslims, which the hadith transmitted by Ibn Abbas points to when it says it is taken from their rich and returned to their poor. ¹

It then divided divorce into the revocable kind, pronounced after consummation, fewer than three times and not in return for money, and the final kind, which is either the lesser finality, a divorce short of three given for money, before consummation or by a judge's ruling, or a revocable divorce whose waiting period has ended without the husband taking her back, or the greater finality, which completes the three. ¹ A revocably divorced woman remains in the position of a wife for as long as her waiting period lasts, with the rights of marriage still in force, her being bound to her husband, forbidden to others and entitled to inherit from him, as Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni says in Nihayat al-Matlab (14/48) that the revocably divorced woman is a wife while in her waiting period. ¹ For this reason the husband may not give her from the share of the poor and needy, because her maintenance is his duty and that makes her well-off; Dar al-Ifta quoted Ibn al-Mundhir in al-Ishraf (3/104) on the scholars' consensus that a man does not give his wife zakat, and showed that medical treatment falls within the maintenance he owes, citing Ulaysh in Minah al-Jalil (4/392) that the husband owes the doctor's fee and the cost of treatment, al-Shawkani in al-Sayl al-Jarrar (1/459-460) that maintenance is owed to preserve her health and medicine is among the things that preserve it, within the limit set by al-Talaq 65:7, and article 1 of Egypt's Personal Status Law 25 of 1920, which states that maintenance covers food, clothing, housing and the costs of treatment. ¹ If she qualifies for zakat on a ground other than poverty or need, such as being a debtor, her husband may give it to her, as al-Khatib al-Shirbini says in al-Iqna (1/232) that a person whom the zakat payer must maintain is not paid from the share of the poor or the needy, since that maintenance makes him well-off, but may be paid from the shares of the other categories if he fits their description. ¹

A finally divorced woman, whether of the lesser or the greater kind, has become a stranger to her former husband, so he may pay her from his zakat whenever she meets the description of poverty or need or any other of the eight categories; Dar al-Ifta quoted Abu al-Hasan Ibn al-Qattan in his al-Iqna (1/222) on the scholars' consensus that whoever distributes his zakat among the categories God named has discharged what was imposed on him. ¹ It said her entitlement is all the stronger when she is both needy and ill, since zakat was instituted only to build up the human being and meet his needs of treatment, education and provision, quoting al-Kasani in Badai al-Sanai (2/3) that paying zakat is a way of helping the weak, relieving the distressed and enabling the incapable to perform what God has imposed on him, and al-Shatibi in al-Muwafaqat (2/385) that the purpose of zakat is to remove the vice of avarice, to benefit the needy and to preserve lives exposed to ruin. ¹ It concluded that paying zakat to a revocably divorced wife from the share of the poor and needy does not count, though it is allowed if she qualifies on another ground such as debt, while if the divorce is final he may pay her from his zakat to help her have the operation she cannot afford. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 8957, on details page 24235, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad, dated 21 April 2026, in the zakat category. 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.