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Fatwa CenterPersonally distributing Zakah
Question
If some one takes out Zakah of money and distribute it to the poor by himself without giving to "Bait al maal" (Muslims treasury) is this Zakah valued infront of Allah. Please note that I am from a small village where I do not trust the management personnel.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is lawful for a person to distribute his own Zakaah himself among its recipients. In fact, this has been common practice among the Muslims since the era of the Caliph ‘Uthman Ibn ‘Affaan 
.
When ‘Uthman saw that the Muslims had much hidden wealth (such as gold, silver and cash money) and that it was difficult and sometimes embarrassing to inspect such wealth, he gave them the right to distribute their Zakaah themselves.
The jurists 
agreed that the owners of hidden wealth should distribute the Zakaah of such wealth themselves. The evidence for this is that As-Saayeb Ibn Yazeed said that he heard ‘Uthmaan Ibn ‘Affaan saying while giving a sermon on the Prophets' pulpit: “This is the month of your Zakaah. Whoever amongst you has some debts he should pay them until his wealth becomes exempt from all debts. Then he should pay Zakaah.” [Al Bayhaqi]
Besides, An-Nawawi 
said: “There is no difference of opinion on this issue, and our scholars [i.e. of the Shaafi’i School of jurisprudence] reported a consensus among the Muslim Scholars over this issue.”
The hidden wealth is wealth such as trade commodities, gold, silver, and cash money.
As for the publicly known properties such as cattle, crops, fruits and minerals, then the scholars differed in opinion as to who should distribute its Zakaah. Some of them are of the view that the Imam (the Muslim ruler) or his representatives should collect it and distribute it on its recipients. However, other scholars are of the view that there is no difference between the two kinds of properties and that the rule is the same.
All this applies to when there is an authority that can distribute Zakaah to its legitimate recipients, otherwise there is no difference of opinion that it is better in order to be on the safe side that the person should distribute it himself.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 159867 and 116828.
Allah knows best.
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