Chapter on Zakat of the Wealth of the Absent Person, Debt, and Loan

Ali ibn al-Hasan, from Ahmad and Muhammad, the two sons of al-Hasan, from their father, from Abdullah ibn Bukayr, from Maysarah, from Abd al-Aziz, who said: I (narrator) asked Abu Abdillah عليه السلام, peace be upon him, about ‘a man who has a debt, Does he pay zakat on it?’ Imam عليه السلام said: “Every debt that he leaves, while if he wanted to take it he could take it, then its zakat is upon him. But whatever he is not able to take, then there is no zakat upon him.”