Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
If your friend is poor and needs money, then he falls under one of these categories and you may give him out of the zakah.
Answering your question, Dr. Muhammad Salama, PhD, Islamic Studies in English, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences al-Madinah International University (Mediu), states:
Almighty Allah says in the Ever-Glorious Quran:
“Indeed, [prescribed] charitable offerings are only [to be given] to the poor and the indigent, and to those who work on [administering] it, and to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to [free] those in bondage, and to the debt-ridden, and for the cause of God, and to the wayfarer. [This is] an obligation from God. And God is all-knowing, all-wise.” (At-Tawbah 9:60)
So, if your friend is poor and needs money, then he falls under one of these categories and you may give him out of the zakah. You do not have to tell him about the reality of this money.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.