Is it permissible to disburse Zakat to an indebted legal entity, and does it fall under Allah's saying: "and for the indebted"?
The Hanafis and Shafi'is stipulated ownership (tamleek) in all categories of expenditure. In contrast, the Malikis and Hanbalis stipulated it only for the poor, the needy, and those employed to collect it, but not for the remaining categories. Based on the opinion that ownership is a condition, it is not permissible to give zakat to a legal entity that does not own property, nor can zakat be spent on general charitable causes like building roads and mosques, because ownership is absent in these cases and because they are not among the eight categories of recipients mentioned in the Quran.
As for a company, if it is indebted (gharimah) and its owners cannot find a way to pay off the debt, it is permissible to give them from zakat to settle the debt. If some of them are unable to pay, they are given from zakat an amount proportionate to their share if they will use it to pay off the debt; otherwise, not.
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