480 - Issue: He said: (It is permissible to give to a single person what is required for a group, and to a group what is required for a single person.)

As for giving the charity of a group to a single person, we know of no disagreement regarding this, for he has dispensed the charity to its rightful recipient, and is thus absolved of it, just as if he had given it to one person. As for giving the charity of a single person to a group, al-Shafi'i and those who agreed with him made it obligatory to distribute the charity among six categories, and to give the portion of each category to three individuals among them, according to what we mentioned before this. We have already mentioned the evidence for that, and also because it is a charity given to a non-specified recipient, so it is permissible to spend it on one person, like voluntary charity. This is the opinion of Malik, Abu Thawr, Ibn al-Mundhir, and the scholars of the school of opinion (Ashab al-Ra'y).

481 - Issue: He said: (And whoever pays [zakat] on behalf of a fetus, it is good. Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, used to pay on behalf of a fetus.)

The school of thought holds that al-fitra (zakat al-fitr) is not obligatory for a fetus. This is the opinion of the majority of scholars. Ibn al-Mundhir said: Everyone we know of from the scholars of the major cities does not make it obligatory for a man to pay zakat al-fitr on behalf of a fetus in its mother's womb. There is another narration from Ahmad that it is obligatory for him, because he is a human being, it is valid to make a will for him, he inherits, and he thus enters into the generality of the reports, and is analogized to a born child. Our stance is that he is a fetus, so zakat does not attach to him, like the fetuses of livestock, and because the rulings of the world do not apply to him except regarding inheritance and bequests, on the condition that he is born alive. Once this is established, it is recommended to pay it on his behalf, because Uthman used to pay it on his behalf, and because it is a charity on behalf of someone for whom it is not mandatory, so it is recommended, like other voluntary charities.