Ihsaan Magazine May 2017 (Ramadhan Issue) | Page 14

(9:60). Zakaat, which developed fourteen hundred
years ago, functions as a form of social security in a
Muslim society.
at
Zaka
is an
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o
i
t
iga
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o
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O
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2.5 lth
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a
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Take,
[O, Muhammad],
from their wealth a
charity by which you
purify them and cause
them increase, and invoke
[ Allah ‘s blessings] upon them.
Indeed, your invocations are
reassurance for them. And Allah is
Hearing and Knowing.
Verse (9:103)
ZAKAAT
The third pillar of Islam
C
harity is not just recommended in Islam, it is required of every financially stable Muslim. Giving charity to
those who deserve it is part of a Muslim’s character and one of the five pillars of Islam. Zakaat is viewed as
“compulsory charity”; it is an obligation for those who have received their wealth from God to respond to
those members of the community in need. Devoid of sentiments of universal love, some people know only to hoard
wealth and to add to it by lending it out on interest.
Islam’s teachings are the very antithesis of this
attitude. Islam encourages the sharing of wealth with
others and helps people to stand on their own and
become productive members of society.
In Arabic, it is known as Zakaat, which literally
means “purification,” because the Zakaat is
considered to purify one’s heart of greed. Love of
wealth is natural and it takes firm belief in God for a
person to part with some of his wealth. Zakaat must
be paid on different categories of property — gold,
silver, money; livestock; agricultural produce; and
business commodities — and is payable each year
after one year’s possession. It requires an annual
contribution of 2.5 percent of an individual’s wealth
and assets.
Like prayer, which is both an individual and
communal responsibility, Zakaat expresses a
Muslim’s worship of, and thanksgiving to God by
supporting those in need. In Islam, the true owner
of things is not man, but God. Acquisition of wealth
for its own sake, or so that it may increase a man’s
worth, is condemned. Mere acquisition of wealth
counts for nothing in the sight of God. It does not
give man any merit in this life or in the hereafter.
Islam teaches that people should acquire wealth with
the intention of spending it on their own needs and
the needs of others.
12 | Ihsaan | Issue 2
“’Man’, said the Prophet, ‘says: My wealth!
My wealth!’ Have you not any wealth except
that which you give as alms and thus preserve,
wear and tatter, eat and use up?”
The whole concept of wealth is considered in Islam as a
gift from God. God, who provided it to the person, made
a portion of it for the poor, so the poor has a right over
one’s wealth. Zakaat reminds Muslims that everything
they have belongs to God. People are given their wealth
as a trust from God, and Zakaat is intended to free
Muslims from the love of money.
The money paid in Zakaat is not something God needs
or receives. He is above any type of dependency. God, in
His boundless mercy, promises rewards for helping those
in need with one basic condition; that Zakaat be paid in
the name of God; one should not expect or demand any
worldly gains from the beneficiaries nor aim at making
one’s names as a philanthropist.
The feelings of a beneficiary should not be hurt by
making him feel inferior or reminding him of the
assistance.
Money given as Zakaat can only be used for certain
specific things. Islamic law stipulates that alms are to be
used to support the poor and the needy and to free slaves
and debtors, as specifically mentioned in the Qur’an
Neither Jewish nor Christian scriptures praise slave
manumission by raising it to worship. Indeed, Islam
is unique in world religions in requiring the faithful
to financially help slaves win their freedom and
has raised the manumission of a slave to an act of
worship — if it is done to please God.
Under the caliphates, the collection and expenditure
of Zakaat was a function of the state. In the
contemporary Muslim world, it has been
left up to the individual, except in some
countries in which the state fulfils that
role to some degree.
Most Muslims in the West disper