ZAKAT
One of the most important principles of Islam is that all things belong to God, and that wealth is therefore held by human beings in trust. The word Zakat means both 'purification' and 'growth'. Our possessions are purified by setting aside a proportion for those in need, and, like the pruning of plants, this cutting back balances and encourages new growth.
Zakat is the amount of money that every adult, mentally stable, free, and financially able Muslim, male and female, has to pay to support specific categories people.
Zakat is the amount of money that every adult, mentally stable, free, and financially able Muslim, male and female, has to pay to support specific categories people.
This category of people is defined in surah at-Taubah (9) verse 60: "The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those who collect them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free the captives and the debtors, and for the cause of Allah, and (for) the wayfarers; a duty imposed by Allah. Allah is knower, Wise." (The Holy Qur'an 9:60).
The obligatory nature of Zakat is firmly established in the Qur'an, the Sunnah (or hadith), and the consensus of the companions and the Muslim scholars. Allah states in Surah at-Taubah verses 34-35: "O ye who believe! there are indeed many among the priests and anchorites, who in Falsehood devour the substance of men and hinder (them) from the way of Allah. And there are those who bury gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah. announce unto them a most grievous penalty - On the Day when heat will be produced out of that (wealth) in the fire of Hell, and with it will be branded their foreheads, their flanks, and their backs, their flanks, and their backs.- "This is the (treasure) which ye buried for yourselves: taste ye, then, the (treasures) ye buried!" (The Holy Qur'an 9:34-35).
It is agreed between Muslims in all the centuries the obligatory nature of paying Zakat for gold and silver, and from those the other kinds of currency.
Zakat is obligatory when a certain amount of money, called the nisab is reached or exceeded. Zakat is not obligatory if the amount owned is less than this nisab. The nisab (or minimum amount) of gold and golden currency is 20 mithqal, this is approximately 85 grams of pure gold. One mithqal is approximately 4.25 grams. The nisab of silver and silver currency is 200 dirhams, which is approximately 595 grams of pure silver. The nisab of other kinds of money and currency is to be scaled to that of gold, 85 grams of pure gold. This means that the nisab of money is the price of 85 grams of 999-type (pure) gold, on the day in which Zakat is paid. Current Gold Prices
When is Zakat Due ?
- 1. Passage of One Lunar Year:
- Zakat is obligatory after a time span of one lunar year passes with the money in the control of it's owner. Then the owner needs to pay 2.5% (or 1/40) of the money as Zakat. (A lunar year is approximately 355 days).
- 2. Deduction of Debts:
- The owner should deduct any amount of money he or she borrowed from others; then check if the rest reaches the necessary nisab, then pays Zakat for it.
Each Muslim calculates his or her own Zakat individually. For most purposes this involves the payment each year of two and a half percent of one's capital.
A pious person may also give as much as he or she pleases as sadaqa, and does so preferably in secret. Although this word can be translated as 'voluntary charity' it has a wider meaning. The Prophet said 'even meeting your brother with a cheerful face is charity.'
The Prophet said: 'Charity is a necessity for every Muslim. ' He was asked: 'What if a person has nothing?' The Prophet replied: 'He should work with his own hands for his benefit and then give something out of such earnings in charity.' The Companions asked: 'What if he is not able to work?' The Prophet said: 'He should help poor and needy persons.' The Companions further asked 'What if he cannot do even that?' The Prophet said 'He should urge others to do good.' The Companions said 'What if he lacks that also?' The Prophet said 'He should check himself from doing evil. That is also charity. --IsamCity--
One of the Quran’s major themes is social justice for those whom society disadvantages and compassion for the vulnerable. God says in the Quran:
As for the believing men and the believing women—all [of them] are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Moreover, they [duly] establish the Prayer, and give the Zakat-Charity, and they obey God and His Messenger. It is these upon whom God shall have mercy. Indeed, God is overpowering, all-wise. (Al-Tawbah, 9:71)
Mention of Zakat here is significant. It points to the characteristics of a fully functional (and fully human) community, promoting care and love between each other by (a) guaranteeing justice unto the least of them, while (b) shielding the weak from injury. This two-part functionality is then directly pinned to raising one’s spiritual consciousness through the Salât-Prayer and raising one’s social consciousness by paying the Zakat-Charity. These special items—among all the commands of Allah and His Messenger—Allah has highlighted for scrupulous maintenance.
This is no utopian call. On the contrary, it is a minimum acceptable moral standard for a working human community. Zakat plays a key role in bringing about such a model society. It not only enshrines the right of help for the community’s needy, facilitating ongoing support from the rich to the poor, but, in so doing, it builds a relationship of consideration and appreciation between society’s members.
Charity is the substance that binds every Muslim to every other by way of their obligation to one another in God. Islam builds its community out of human obligation toward each other, making each Muslim accountable for the wellbeing of every other Muslim. This concept of reciprocal social obligation is called takâful, meaning “mutual responsibility,” and it is strongly bolstered by the fact that the Zakat-Charity is an act of mandatory worship. The tenet of mutual responsibility helps Muslims envision their society like an extended family.
Throughout our history, whenever Muslims sincerely systematized the Zakat obligation, as Allah (swt) and His Messenger, peace be upon him, have ordained it, Muslims worked something on the order of social miracles. Societies flourished. Communities flowered. Individuals thrived.
Zakat awakens the individual’s social spirit with the truest practical expression of brotherhood. When Muslims pay Zakat, the society behaves exactly like a family, the able helping the incapable, one upholding all. Said the Prophet:
The believers—in their kindness, compassion, and empathy for one another—are as a single body. When one limb is afflicted, the whole body responds to it with sleeplessness and fever. (Bukhârî and Muslim)
Zakat spreads tranquility and peace in society because it secures the weak and their dependents with the guarantee of certain provision, shelter, and access to essential communal facilities. The magic of Zakat is not only that it links one to others by a sense of personal responsibility, but that it binds everyone to the individual through an obligation of sufficiency. There is no greater bulwark against social disintegration.
Zakat as a Kind of Welfare System
Zakat is the first known system of community-wide welfare regulated as a social support network for those in need. It is a meaningful institution with a clearly defined religious-social-economic mandate. Its rules, regulations, structures, standards, and specific functions are well-established. It does not depend on voluntary charity, and its collection is enforceable by society.
The Zakat system revealed by God and instituted by the Prophet was complete and functional among Muslims in the Seventh Century. Within a few years of the Prophet’s migration to Madinah, the Zakat system had become so effective that very few people even needed it. For one of the virtues of Zakat is that in providing for the poor and linking each to all and all to each, it enables people to separate themselves from those social practices that guarantee the impoverishment of some.
It took more than 13 centuries after the Prophet for Europe (and by that time America) to even address poverty systematically with some effectiveness. Not until 1941 did England and the United States initiate a worldwide agreement for governments to respect and warrant the social welfare of heir nationals. Yet even then beliefs imbedded in capitalist and communistic economic theory made it a certainty that global poverty would increase to the civilization- and ecology-threatening proportions we live with today.
Equitable Distribution of Zakat
Resources are not only gifts from God to all human beings but also a trust. Accordingly, Islam emphasizes an equitable distribution of income and wealth for the fulfillment of the needs of everyone. As a consequence of the application of one’s skills and efforts, one’s birth, location, and timing, and other factors extreme inequalities emerge between people. In the absence of adequate social restraints and mechanisms for re-distribution, wealth invariably concentrates in the hands of a few. To counter this, in part, God has enjoined the believing society with strict laws of inheritance and public disbursement of windfalls, establishing the institution of Zakat to redress extreme or highly skewed inequalities of income and wealth. As God states it in the Quran:
“So that [wealth] does not merely circulate between the wealthy among you.” (Al-Hashr, 59:7)
In every society, there are those who may find it hard to earn a living through their own labor, whether owing to disability, lack of opportunity, or depressed production or wages. Islam addresses this by making helping the needy an individual and collective responsibility, first within Muslim families and society, and then through the global Muslim community at large. Moreover, it forbids, in the strongest and broadest terms, stigmatizing the destitute or blaming them for their condition (Qurayshî, Annual Zakat Computation Guide, 9-13).
If a Muslim society does not apply the comprehensive economic injunctions of the Quran and the Prophet, the Zakat-Charity alone will not be enough to recreate poverty-free societies, as we have just described. We have plenty of examples of this insufficiency in the Muslim societies of our times—(societies that, for the most part, do not even structure the Zakat institution properly!) Yet were Muslims to prudently apply the principles of Zakat in a current Muslim country, it would not, in isolation of all other factors, cure poverty. Zakat is part of a godly economic outlook on, and practice in, the world. For example, Islam forbids extravagance, whether or not one is rich or poor. Thus owning utensils made of gold and silver, or residing in ostentatious homes, is considered excessive, even forbidden.
In addition, Islam also forbids earning interest. Rather, it inspires human beings to work for their money, not to live off the incurable debt and financial misery of others. Moreover, Islam calls upon the rich to employ the poor. So the narratives of Zakat’s amazing historical success that we have just recounted demonstrate the great efficacy of the Zakat-Charity system at work within the spiritual-moral context of Islam’s other economic injunctions; among people who have internalized its concepts of selflessness, self-restraint, conservation, sufficiency, contentment, modesty, extended family and familial responsibility, and love of the poor; and, above all, amid societies whose members are resolutely committed to upholding the divine covenant of all Muslims to implement and secure the individual believer’s unfettered right of total worship.
By: Amirah Murphy
