If a person has a debt and wants to pay the debt back, can he apply for Zakat to pay their debt?

Answer By Dr Zakir Naik,As far as a person who is a debtor as mentioned in the Qur’an, the 6th category is GaareMoon, those who are in debt., so those who are in debt, they can surely ask for Zakaat money, they can apply…they can ask for Zakaat money because normally a person may not be aware that a person is in debt so he can ask, he can even beg and there is a Hadith in Sahih Muslim Vol. no. 3 (Book of Buya) Hadith no. 3777 where “A person comes and begs to the Prophet that a lot of loss that has taken place, by some fruits and there is a loss in his business, and he is in great debt. So he goes to the Prophet and he asks him to help him so the Prophet says that “give him out of charity”, give him out of Zakaat money. But even after money was gives it wasn’t given it wasn’t sufficient to pay his debt back so the person who he owed the debt to, the Prophet says “take what you get and write off the rest of the debt.”