Chapter on Additions Regarding Zakat

Muhammad ibn Yaqub, from Ali ibn Ibrahim, from his father, from Ibn Faddal, from Marwan ibn Muslim, from Ibn Bukayr, from Ubayd ibn Zurarah, who said: I (narrator) asked Abu Abdillah عليه السلام, peace be upon him, about ‘a man who took out the Zakat of his wealth, one thousand dirhams, but did not find a place for it to which he could pay that, so he looked at an owned slave who was being sold among those who bid higher, and he bought him with those one thousand dirhams which he had taken out from his Zakat, then freed him. Is that permissible?’ Imam عليه السلام said: “Yes, there is no harm in that.” I (narrator) said to Imam عليه السلام: “Then when he (the former slave) was freed and became free, he traded and worked, and acquired wealth, then died while having no heir; who inherits him when he has no heir?” Imam عليه السلام said: “The poor believers who are entitled to Zakat inherit him, because he was only bought with their wealth.”