Transferring Zakah outside the country

Q: I have commodities on which Zakah (obligatory charity) should be paid as one of the Rights of Allah (Exalted be He). Also, I have some relatives in Al-Madinah; some nephews and other children of another nephew who are all poor. Therefore, I send them some Zakah money. I also have a blind and poor sick niece in `Enezah for which I have appointed a deputy to pay a hundred and fifty Riyals every month. In addition, (Part No. 9; Page No. 417) I send some Zakah money to my wife's sister in Riyadh as she has eight children. Yet, I heard that it is not permissible to transfer Zakah from the country where I live to another country provided that I live in Abha `Asir. Please, advise! May Allah reward you with the best in the worldly life and the hereafter.

A: There is nothing wrong with this according to the most correct opinion of scholars, if transferring Zakah from the country where the owner of the money lives is for a Shar`y (Islamically lawful) Maslahah (public interest), such as there being a case of severe poverty, a kin relationship with the recipient, or to support a knowledge-seeker. But, if you manage to provide for those you have mentioned except you wife's sister and her children from your own money, not from Zakah; this is better and more preferable since this is a way of doing favor to kinship which you have to uphold as much as possible. As for your wife's sister and her children. There is no problem in giving to her and her children some Zakah money after making sure that they are poor because she is Ajnabiyyah (a woman other than a wife or permanently unmarriageable female relatives).May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.