It is permissible for a wife to give the zakaah of her wealth to her husband

Question

Praise be to Allah.

Firstly:

It is not obligatory for a husband to pay zakaah on behalf of
his wife, because zakaah is obligatory on the owner of the wealth. Zakaah is
not part of the obligatory maintenance to which a wife is entitled from her
husband.

Secondly:

With regard to a wife giving the zakaah of her wealth to her
husband, many scholars have said that this is permissible, and they quote as
evidence the report narrated by al-Bukhaari (1462) and Muslim (1000) from
Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allaah be pleased with him), that when the Prophet
SAWS (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) commanded the women to give
in charity, Zaynab the wife of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood came to him and said:
“O Prophet of Allaah, today you told us to give in charity. I have some
jewellery and I want to give it in charity, but Ibn Mas’ood claims that he
and his child are more deserving of my charity.” The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Ibn Mas’ood has spoken the truth.
Your husband and child are more deserving of your charity.”

Al-Haafiz said:

This hadeeth indicates that it is permissible for a woman to
give her zakaah to her husband. This is the view of al-Shaafa’i, al-Thawri
and the two companions of Abu Haneefah. It was one of the two reports
narrated from Maalik, and from Ahmad.

This is supported by the fact that the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not discuss it further with her,
which may be interpretted as meaning that his statement is applicable in
general terms, because when she mentioned charity, he did not ask whether
this was voluntary charity or obligatory charity (i.e., zakaah). It is as if
he said: That is a valid action on your part whether it is obligatory or
voluntary.

Some scholars said that it is not allowed for a wife to give
the zakaah of her wealth to her husband, because he is going to spend some
of it on her, so it is as if she is giving the zakaah to herself. They
interpreted this hadeeth as referring to voluntary charity.

Ibn al-Munayyir responded
to this view by saying: The possibility that her charity may come back to
her also applies in the case of voluntary charity.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said in al-Sharh al-Mumti’
(6/168-169):

The correct view is that it is permissible to give zakaah to
one’s husband if he is one of the people who are entitled to zakaah.

Perhaps evidence for that may be seen in the words that the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) spoke to Zaynab the
wife of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with them both): “Ibn
Mas’ood has spoken the truth. Your husband and child are more deserving of
your charity.” We may say that this includes both obligatory and voluntary
(naafil) charity. Whatever the case, if this hadeeth is evidence then all
well and good, but if it applies only to voluntary charity then with regard
to giving zakaah to one’s husband we say: if the husband is poor then he is
entitled to zakaah, and where is the evidence that this is not allowed?
Because if the ruling can only be proven by evidence, there is no evidence
either from the Qur’aan or the Sunnah that a woman cannot give her zakaah to
her husband.

The Standing Committee (10/62) was asked:

Is it permissible for a woman to give the zakaah of her
wealth to her husband if he is poor?

They replied: it is permissible for a woman to give the
zakaah of her wealth to her husband if he is poor so as to ward off his
poverty, because of the general meaning of the verse in which Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):

“As-Sadaqaat (here it means Zakaah) are only for the
Fuqaraa’ (poor), and Al-Masaakeen (the poor)”

[al-Tawbah 9:60]

Thirdly:

The above applies only to
a wife giving her zakaah to her husband. With regard to a husband giving his
zakaah to his wife, Ibn al-Mundhir said: They (the scholars) are unanimously
agreed that a man should not give his zakaah to his wife, because he is
obliged to spend on her, which means that she does not need zakaah.